Category: Legal Matters

A Tokyo District Court found on Wednesday that Japan’s lack of legal protection for same-sex marriages violated the constitution but said the government’s lack of legislative action on the matter was not illegal.

 

Japan is currently the only G-7 nation that continues to ban same-sex marriage and does not allow same-sex couples to marry, inherit assets and denies parental rights.

 

The Tokyo court threw out demands of $7,175 (1 million yen) in compensation for each of the eight plaintiffs in the case who asserted the law was discriminatory.

 

Article 24 in the Japanese constitution explicitly states, “marriage shall be based only on the consent of both sexes” and recognizes equal rights between a husband and wife.

 

In the ruling, the Tokyo court said while the ban itself was constitutional, the lack of legal protection for same-sex couples infringes on their rights and is unconstitutional.

 

According to Reuters, the court found the absence of legal protection for same-sex couples “is in state of violation” of the second paragraph of Article 24.

 

While the ruling still dismissed the plaintiffs’ demand of compensation, the response of the court is seen as a major step for LGBTQ+ rights in Japan, where gender roles and family values are deeply intertwined in society.

 

“I was glad that the ruling acknowledged we have a right to be families,” plaintiff Chizuka Oe said at a news conference. “This is just the beginning.”

This ruling was the third of five similar lawsuits filed around the country with divisive responses from different courts.

 

The Sapporo District Court found the banning of same-sex marriage was unconstitutional in March 2021, while the Osaka district court ruled banning same-sex marriage was constitutional.

 

Local municipalities, including Tokyo prefecture, have attempted to assist same-sex couples through the Partnership Oath System. There is still a lack of legal protection, however, for inheritance and medical issues.

 

Japanese society is starting to think more open-mindedly about same-sex marriage according to a public opinion poll conducted by Mainichi Shinbun and Saitama University Social Research Center. The poll found that 71% of 18–29-year-old Japanese people say that same-sex marriage should be recognized. This figure drops to about 25% for those above the age of 70.

 

Source: Voice of America

SHANGHAI — Protests simmered in Shanghai early Sunday, as residents in several Chinese cities, many of them angered by a deadly fire in the country’s far west, pushed back against heavy COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic.

 

A fire Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, has sparked widespread public anger as many internet users surmised that residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked down, which city officials denied.

 

In Shanghai, China’s most populous city and financial hub, residents gathered on Saturday night at the city’s Wulumuqi Road — which borrows its name from Urumqi — for a vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.

 

“Lift lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China!” the crowds in Shanghai shouted, according to a video circulated on social media.

 

At one point a large group began shouting, “Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping, free Urumqi!” according to witnesses and videos, in a rare public protest of the Chinese leadership.

 

A large group of police looked on and sometimes tried to break up the crowd.

 

China is battling a surge in infections that has prompted lockdowns and other restrictions in cities across the country as Beijing adheres to a zero-COVID policy even as much of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus.

 

China defends President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-COVID policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system. Officials have vowed to continue with it despite the growing public pushback and its mounting toll on the world’s second-biggest economy.

 

Videos from Shanghai widely shared on Chinese social media showed crowds facing dozens of police and calling out chants including: “Serve the people,” “We don’t want health codes” and “We want freedom.”

 

Some social media users posted screenshots of street signs for Wulumuqi Road, both to evade censors and show support for protesters in Shanghai. Others shared comments or posts calling for all of “you brave young people” to be careful. Many included advice on what to do if police came or started arresting people during a protest or vigil.

 

Anger nationwide

 

Shanghai’s 25 million people were put under lockdown for two months earlier this year, an ordeal that provoked anger and protest.

 

Chinese authorities have since then sought to be more targeted in their COVID curbs, but that effort has been challenged by a surge in infections as China faces its first winter with the highly transmissible omicron variant.

 

While low by global standards, China’s case numbers have hit record highs for days, with nearly 40,000 new infections reported by health authorities on Sunday for the previous day.

 

On Friday night, crowds took to the streets of Urumqi, chanting “End the lockdown!” and pumping their fists in the air after the deadly fire, according to videos circulated on Chinese social media.

 

Many of Urumqi’s 4 million residents have been under some of the country’s longest lockdowns, barred from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days.

 

In Beijing, 2,700 kilometers away, some residents under lockdown staged small protests or confronted local officials on Saturday over movement restrictions, with some successfully pressuring them into lifting the curbs ahead of schedule.

 

A video shared with Reuters showed Beijing residents in an unidentifiable part of the capital marching around an open-air carpark Saturday, shouting “End the lockdown!”

 

The Beijing government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

 

The next few weeks could be the worst in China since the early weeks of the pandemic both for the economy and the health care system, Mark Williams of Capital Economics said in note last week, as efforts to contain the outbreak will require additional localized lockdowns in many cities.

 

Source: Voice of America

A Singaporean businessman wanted by the United States on suspicion of violating sanctions on North Korea is in the city-state where he is under investigation, Singapore police said.

 

In a statement issued late Saturday, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said they have sought clarification from their U.S. counterparts over the reward as they have kept the U.S. informed about the ongoing probe by local authorities.

 

The U.S. State Department on Thursday offered $5 million for information on businessman Kwek Kee Seng, accusing him of numerous fuel deliveries to North Korea and ship-to-ship transfers as well as money laundering through front companies.

 

Federal prosecutors in New York in 2021 issued an arrest warrant for Kwek, a year after one of his oil tankers, the M/T Courageous, was seized by Cambodia at the request of the U.S. over alleged sanctions violations.

 

Kwek, 62, owns the Swanseas Port Services shipping company based in the city-state.

 

The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program had said his exact location was not known and that he also has been identified as being in North Korea, Cambodia, Taiwan and Thailand as well as Cameroon and the tiny Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

 

But Singapore’s police said in their statement that “Kwek is presently in Singapore.”

He has been under investigation since April 2021 by the Commercial Affairs Department, the city’s white-collar crime investigation agency, and his passport has been impounded.

 

The Singapore police said the investigation was launched after the U.S. Justice Department announced a criminal complaint had been filed against Kwek for “allegedly conspiring to evade economic sanctions” on North Korea and for money laundering.

 

The SPF said they have shared information about their investigation of Kwek with U.S. law enforcement authorities.

 

“Since then, there were several more exchanges. Due to the nature and complexity of the case, investigations are still ongoing,” police said.

 

“On 4 November 2022, the SPF wrote to our U.S. counterparts to seek clarification, given that we had been in active communication with our U.S. counterparts on Kwek’s case,” it added.

 

“Singapore will continue to assist the US authorities within the ambit of our laws and international obligations,” it said.

 

The reward comes as the U.S. urges strict enforcement of United Nations sanctions on North Korea since its recent missile launches, including one missile that landed close to South Korea’s waters.

 

Source: Voice of America

In response to media queries about the United States (US) Department of State’s reward offer under the US Rewards for Justice (RFJ) programme for information on a Singaporean, Kwek Kee Seng (“Kwek”), the SPF would like to highlight that Kwek is presently in Singapore. He has been under investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) for offences under Singapore’s United Nations Act 2001, since 28 April 2021. Kwek’s passport has been impounded by the CAD since the same date.

 

On 23 April 2021, the US Department of Justice issued a press release announcing that a criminal complaint had been filed against Kwek for allegedly conspiring to evade economic sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) as well as for money laundering, and that a tanker COURAGEOUS (previously known as SEA PRIMA) had been seized. COURAGEOUS was a vessel allegedly purchased by Kwek to make illicit deliveries of petroleum products through ship-to-ship transfers with DPRK vessels, and direct shipments to the DPRK port of Nampo.

 

Pursuant to this information, on 28 April 2021, the SPF commenced formal investigations against Kwek for possible offences under Section 5 of the United Nations Act 2001. On 29 April 2021, SPF issued a news release confirming that Kwek was being investigated for possible offences under the United Nations Act 2001. On 30 April 2021, the SPF shared information on the investigations against Kwek with the US law enforcement authorities via a letter. On 7 May 2021, this information was formally conveyed by Singapore to various US agencies through a Third-Party Note. Since then, there were several more exchanges. Due to the nature and complexity of the case, investigations are still ongoing.

 

On 4 November 2022, the SPF wrote to our US counterparts to seek clarification, given that we had been in active communication with our US counterparts on Kwek’s case. Singapore will continue to assist the US authorities within the ambit of our laws and international obligations.

 

Source: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

A federal judge ruled Friday that relatives of people killed in the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max planes are crime victims under federal law and should have been told about private negotiations over a settlement that spared Boeing from criminal prosecution.

 

The full impact of the ruling is not yet clear, however. The judge said the next step is to decide what remedies the families should get for not being told of the talks with Boeing.

 

Some relatives are pushing to scrap the government’s January 2021 settlement with Boeing, and they have expressed anger that no one in the company has been held criminally responsible.

 

Boeing Co., which is based in Arlington, Virginia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Boeing, which misled safety regulators who approved the Max, agreed to pay $2.5 billion including a $243.6 million fine. The Justice Department agreed not to prosecute the company for conspiracy to defraud the government.

 

The Justice Department, in explaining why it didn’t tell families about the negotiations, argued that the relatives are not crime victims. However, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, said the crashes were a foreseeable consequence of Boeing’s conspiracy, making the relatives representatives of crime victims.

 

“In sum, but for Boeing’s criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA, 346 people would not have lost their lives in the crashes,” he wrote.

 

Naoise Connolly Ryan, whose husband died in the second Max crash, in Ethiopia, said Boeing is responsible for his death.

 

“Families like mine are the true victims of Boeing’s criminal misconduct, and our views should have been considered before the government gave them a sweetheart deal,” she said in a statement issued by a lawyer for the families.

 

The first Max crashed Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189, and another crashed five months later in Ethiopia, killing 157. All Max jets were grounded worldwide for nearly two years. They were cleared to fly again after Boeing overhauled an automated flight-control system that activated erroneously in both crashes.

 

Source: Voice of America

Authorities in Thailand say they’re planning a raft of new gun control measures in the wake of a mass shooting that has left the country reeling, though experts question how much they’ll do to stop a repeat or drive down one of Asia’s highest firearm ownership rates.

Panya Kamrab, a former police officer, stormed a child care center in Thailand’s northeast on October 6, armed with a gun and large knife. After shooting his way in, he went on a killing spree that left 36 dead, including 23 children, before heading home to kill his wife and son, then himself.

Police said Panya had been fired from the force in June for drug abuse and was due in court the next day for sentencing on an illegal narcotics possession charge. Authorities have not revealed a motive for the attack, but the tragedy has shone a spotlight on the widespread prevalence of guns and gun violence in Thailand.

The country of 69 million had 10.3 million guns in private hands — over 4 million of them unregistered — as of 2017, the latest year for which GunPolicy.org, a project of the University of Sydney, has data. That’s more than one gun for every seven Thais, the highest rate by far in Southeast Asia.

Reacting to the massacre, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha chaired a special meeting of top officials Wednesday to try to find ways to bring down both legal gun ownership and rein in a thriving black market.

Major General Achayon Kraithong, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, said the leading proposals include adding psychological evaluations to the gun licensing process and having gun owners periodically reassessed.

“Police [proposed] the idea: Before you possess the gun, you have to have the certificate from the doctor of mental health,” he told VOA. “And when you get the gun and you get the license, maybe [every] one year or two years … you have to prove by the doctor that you can have the right to [keep] the gun.”

Under the plan, a workplace supervisor or local government official would have to sign off on an applicant’s good character as well.

‘Lack of effective enforcement’

Achayon said police were also planning to step up their monitoring of illicit online gun sales and improve intelligence sharing between agencies.

They also proposed an amnesty for unlicensed gun owners. The amnesty would allow owners a window of opportunity to turn in their unregistered firearms without penalties, which can run up to 10 years in jail.

The spokesman said the details still had to be worked out and offered no timetable.

Prayut and Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda broadly backed the proposals while speaking to reporters after the meeting.

Chavanut Janekarn, a criminologist and lecturer at Thailand’s Thammasat University and a 25-year veteran of the police force, said the plans would help keep guns out of at least some of the wrong hands.

“I think we should have [had] the psychological evaluation and personal evaluation for a long time before,” he told VOA. “It cannot resolve all the problems, but at least it is some source of [gun violence] prevention.”

Michael Picard, an independent firearms policy expert previously based in Thailand with GunPolicy.org, was more skeptical. He said Thailand’s existing gun licensing program was much tougher on paper than in practice and worried the same lax enforcement would follow any new rules.

“The dynamics of getting a firearms license is more that, basically, if you’re willing to pay a bribe you can jump the queue and you can maybe be rushed through certain checks that would otherwise take a long time or would maybe be done more diligently,” he said. “So, I don’t think this addresses the root cause of firearms proliferation in Thailand, which is essentially institutional corruption.”

Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Thailand’s Naresuan University, who studies the country’s security forces, agreed.

“Thailand’s largest issue regarding the law and guns is a lack of effective enforcement of the law,” he said. “Psychologists will become shrinks-for-hire in any state-manipulated attempt to forge a facade of gun control.”

Chambers also said any amnesty program would end up being poorly enforced.

Chavanut said past amnesty drives in Thailand for guns and other contraband have suffered from a lack of interest, probably because the criminals believed the odds of getting caught were too low to scare them into coming forward.

Question of ‘overarching reform’

Picard, though, is more enthused by the proposed amnesty, having seen similar drives work in Australia and New Zealand.

He said Thailand’s own firearms amnesty in 2003 helped net some of the assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other heavier small arms that were pouring into and through the country from the many insurgencies swirling around it at the time.

Even so, Picard believes the latest proposals sidestep another fundamental flaw with Thailand’s gun control policies besides corruption: the way the government arms many of its police, soldiers and other officers.

Under a long-running “welfare guns” program, many state employees can buy a variety of firearms tax free and at discounts of as much as half the market price, including soldiers and police officers, who use the program to arm themselves for work.

Chavanut said officers and officials often use the program to stock up on weapons, hold on to them for the requisite waiting period, and sell them for a handsome profit, driving up the country’s gun ownership numbers in the process. Picard said his own research on Thailand suggested that many of the guns also end up on the black market.

Ideally, Picard added, the government would scrap the program and issue all police and soldiers the weapons they need while on duty, as in most developed countries. But Chavanut said that was practically “impossible” given the massive budget rearrangement it would take.

Police said the gun Panya used in last week’s attack was purchased through the discount program and legally owned, even months after he had been fired for drug abuse.

“That’s definitely a huge issue, and something where the government needs to … rethink the big picture,” said Picard. “This isn’t a question of tweaks; this is really a question of overarching reform.”

 

Source: Voice of America