Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu sentenced to 18 years for
‘attacking state organs’ amid land dispute
28 Jul, 2021 15:09
FILE PHOTO. Chinese pig farmer Sun Dawu in Hebei, outside Beijing. © AFP / NOEL CELIS
A Chinese court sentenced Sun Dawu to 18 years in jail on Wednesday after the billionaire was detained last November on charges that included “provoking trouble” and “gathering a crowd to attack state organs.”
The charges against the self-made billionaire were related to a land dispute between Sun’s agricultural firm, the Dawu Group, and a state-owned competitor.
Sun was tried in secret in a Gaobeidian court near Beijing. As well as the long stint in prison, he was fined 3.11 million yuan ($475,000).
He was detained by authorities back in November, along with 19 relatives and business associates, after Dawu employees tried to stop a government-owned enterprise from demolishing a company building in August 2020. According to a social media post by Sun, more than 20 people were injured in a clash with the police.
Sun’s legal team said prosecutors alleged that the Dawu Group acted deceptively toward its employees, interfering with the government’s administrative duties, and causing political instability. The billionaire has faced a slew of other charges, including illegal mining and illegal occupation of farmland.
However, Sun reportedly claimed some responsibility for faults, including posting messages online and unspecified mistakes over the ‘land issue’. He said he wished to take the charges upon himself, even if severe, in exchange for the release of others.
Sun – a self-proclaimed ‘outstanding Communist party member’ – said in response to the claims against his firm that the Dawu Group was “wholly socialist, everyone is on the road to common prosperity, and Dawu employees live very well,” according to his team.
The billionaire’s lawyers said that the secrecy of the trial “violated legal guidelines and did not protect the defendant's litigation rights.”
The land dispute is not the first time the pig-farmer billionaire has butted heads with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In the early 2000s he ran a website that included criticism of state-owned banks, which he accused of neglecting rural investment while funneling rural residents' savings toward urban projects.
In 2003, he was charged with ‘illegal fundraising’ after reportedly taking illegal deposits without approval from the People’s Bank of China. Instead, he solicited investments for his business from friends and neighbors.
After abandoning his appeals for the case, the sentence was suspended and Sun received probation.
More recently, in 2019, he criticized the government’s handling of the swine fever outbreak, publicly disputed the scale of the epidemic, saying it was far more severe than officials had said. He reported that about 15,000 pigs on his farms had died from the disease and posted photos of the dead animals online.
Tunisia’s biggest political parties under investigation over
foreign funding, judiciary announces
28 Jul, 2021 16:15
A Tunisian court has said it is investigating three of the country’s political parties, including Ennahda and Heart of Tunisia, over allegations they received foreign funds during the 2019 election campaign.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Tunisian judiciary told the Tunis Africa News Agency that investigations were launched in the first two weeks of July into allegations of political wrongdoing.
The spokesman added that the inquiries began before President Kais Saied decided to dismiss the prime minister and freeze parliament. Ennahda and Heart of Tunisia have said Saied’s move is tantamount to “revolution.”
The investigation concerns three political parties – the country’s two largest, Ennahda and Heart of Tunisia, and Aish Tounsi – over allegations that they received foreign funding during the 2019 election.
None of the parties were available for comment, according to Reuters. Tunisia is currently facing one of its toughest political challenges after Saied dismissed the PM and froze the country’s parliament for 30 days after an emergency meeting at his palace on Sunday night.
Ennahda has since called for calm after previously inviting its supporters onto the streets to protest the president’s move. While the situation has not escalated throughout the week, the army remains stationed around the parliament building to prevent further demonstrations.
Also on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his Tunisian counterpart, Othman Jerandi, that it was of the utmost importance that Tunisia quickly names a new prime minister, according to a foreign ministry statement.
French data regulator hits Monsanto with $472,000 fine for
illegally compiling watch list to secure support for weed killer
28 Jul, 2021 14:32
FILE PHOTO. © Reuters / Stephane Mahe
France’s data protection regulator has fined agricultural firm Monsanto €400,000 ($472,320) for illegally creating lists to help the company lobby support during a debate about the authorization of a key weed killer ingredient.
The case was launched by the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) after seven plaintiffs complained about Monsanto, now owned by German giant Bayer, compiling files on individuals who were involved in the public debate about the use of controversial weed killer glyphosate.
Which is, in my humble opinion, not just a weed killer but a bee and butterfly killer.
While the lists themselves were not deemed illegal, Monsanto fell foul of the data regulator by keeping the files secret and failing to inform individuals that their information was gathered, giving them the right to refuse to be included.
The French list of more than 200 people gave each individual a rating of one to five, marking influence, credibility and their level of support for the agricultural firm, specifically its pesticide and crop modification practices.
Siding with the plaintiffs, the CNIL fined Monsanto €400,000 over its data collection system and failure to provide individuals with the right to request their data be removed or not collected.
After Monsanto was acquired by Bayer in 2019, the German firm launched an internal investigation that found around 1,500 people had been targeted globally, “primarily within the EU,” but argued that there was no evidence anyone was illegally surveilled.
The watch lists were created during a heated debate in the EU over the use of weedkiller Roundup amid lawsuits that claimed it has the potential to cause cancer. Monsanto has repeatedly claimed that Roundup and its main ingredient glyphosate is safe, denying there is any wrongdoing or cause for concern.
The EU ultimately renewed the right to use glyphosate for a further five years in 2018 despite the US ordering Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages as part of a settlement over claims it causes cancer. The EU’s decision to stand by the use of the weedkiller means that it will be 2022, at the earliest, before the ingredient could be banned permanently from the continent.
I'm sure there was no business under the tables of the EU in 2018. I'm pretty sure.
While the lists were initially created to help lobby support during the debate across the EU, Monsanto continued collecting information and growing files on key figures until 2019, according to the CNIL, when media reports exposed the firm’s practices. However, despite the CNIL’s condemnation of the data collection, the regulator accepted that the information was not used to engage in any illegal lobbying, according to a statement from a Bayer spokesperson.
Maltese govt’s ‘culture of impunity’ led to murder of
anti-corruption journalist, independent inquiry finds
29 Jul, 2021 14:38
People place flowers on a makeshift memorial during a protest and vigil marking twenty-one months since the assassination of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. © REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
The Maltese government created a “culture of impunity” that led to the assassination of reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia five years ago, an inquiry has said while claiming the state bears responsibility for her death.
The investigative journalist was killed in October 2017 when a car bomb detonated under her vehicle as she drove out of her home. By the time of her death, 53-year-old Caruana Galizia had become known for her anti-corruption reporting, having accused Maltese officials of engaging in illicit activities. Malta’s former prime minister, Joseph Muscat, tendered his resignation in 2019 after an investigation into Caruana Galizia’s death implicated close associates of the then-leader. He has never been accused by police of being involved in her murder.
The 437-page report, published on Thursday, follows an independent inquiry that ran for two years and heard from numerous witnesses, including Muscat, other Maltese politicians, and journalists. Laying out its findings, the inquiry said that the government at the time of the killing had created “an extended culture of impunity.”
“The tentacles of impunity then spread to other regulatory bodies and the police, leading to a collapse in the rule of law,” the panel’s report highlighted.
While the inquiry did not specifically cite a motive for the murder of Caruana Galizia, it claimed that the assassination was either intrinsically or directly linked to her investigations. It also cited unwarranted closeness between businesses and government officials which were later found to result in irregularities on big project deals.
Following the publication of the report, Prime Minister Robert Abela released a statement declaring that “lessons must be drawn” from its findings, committing to “continue with greater resolve” to implement reforms to protect the rule of law.
Since her death, Caruana Galizia’s family have sought justice for her murder, with her son describing Malta as a “mafia state” and her mother claiming the journalist was assassinated for having “stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it.”
Meanwhile, a police investigation has indicted three men on charges of murdering Caruana Galizia. In February, one of the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years behind bars. The other two suspects have not yet gone on trial. A fourth person has been charged with complicity over the murder, but denies the allegations.
The independent inquiry was launched two years after Caruana Galizia’s death, with Muscat giving the green light for its creation shortly before he left office. It was headed by former judge Michael Mallia, ex-chief justice Joseph Said Pullicino and Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro.
Muscat and others were outed by Galizia from the Panama Papers for hiding money offshore where it can't be taxed.
Tunisian president tells businessmen they won’t be prosecuted
if they return billions of dollars ‘looted’ from people
29 Jul, 2021 07:37
outside capital Tunis. © Facebook / Présidence Tunisie
Tunisian President Kais Saied, who seized control of the government last weekend, said that billions of dollars had been stolen from the country and offered businessmen an option to return the money if they wanted to avoid prison.
During his meeting with the head of the UTICA business union, Samir Majoul, on Wednesday, Saied blamed 460 individuals for snatching 13.5 billion dinars (around $4.8 billion) from Tunisia.
He promised a crackdown on corruption, but, at the same time, insisted he had “no intention to harm or abuse” Tunisian entrepreneurs.
“I propose a penal reconciliation with businessmen involved in looting the people’s money and tax evasion in exchange for their commitment to projects ... instead of being prosecuted and imprisoned,” the president said in video footage of the meeting distributed by his office.
The man sounds brilliant! Hope he can make it work.
The businessmen on Saied’s list will be ranked in accordance with the amount of money they owe the country. Over the next ten years, they will be asked to fund the construction of schools, hospitals, and other socially important infrastructure, according to the proposal.
The head of state also urged traders to be “patriotic” and to reduce their prices, promising punishment for those caught speculating or hoarding goods.
Saied, who became president in 2019 after campaigning against corruption and the entrenchment of the political elite, used emergency powers to dismiss the government and freeze the parliament late on Sunday. He insisted the harsh move was necessary to “save” the country amid protests caused by people’s anger over its “dysfunctional” political system and crumbling healthcare provision.
His opponents have labeled the consolidation of power in Saied’s hands as a “coup” and a pushback against the achievements made by Tunisia during the Arab Spring uprising in 2014, and urged their supporters to take to the streets. However, the president has warned that the military would “respond with bullets” if the situation got out of hand.
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