Ex-South Korea leader Roh dead, aide says suicide

Fri May 22, 10:35 PM

By Cheon Jong-woo and Jack Kim Cheon Jong-woo And Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's former President Roh Moo-hyun died while hiking in the mountains near his home early on Saturday and a top aide said he appeared to have jumped to his death.

The suggestion of suicide comes as Roh, whose five-year term ended in early 2008, had in recent weeks become embroiled in a widening corruption scandal in which his wife had also been implicated.

"Former President Roh left his house at 5:45 a.m. and while hiking on the Ponghwa Mountain, appears to have jumped off a rock at around 6:40 a.m.," Moon Jae-in, who was Roh's presidential chief of staff, said in a nationally televised statement.

He also said that Roh had left a will for his family.

"This is a truly unbelievable, lamentable and deeply sad event," President Lee Myung-bak, Roh's successor, said in a statement released by the presidential Blue House.

An official with the Busan University Hospital, in the country's southern port city near Roh's home, told a televised news conference that the ex-leader had died from massive head injuries. The former president was taken to the hospital there.

Yonhap news agency quoted police as saying the 62-year-old ex-leader had fallen to his death from a rock just 200 meters from his home while accompanied by a bodyguard.

The hospital official said Roh had been taken to a local hospital before the university hospital in Busan, where he arrived with no vital signs and was pronounced dead at around 8.30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. EDT).

A South Gyeongsang police officer said police were investigating the circumstances surrounding Roh's death.

Roh, a former lawyer who was the unexpected winner of the 2002 presidential election, continued many of the policies of his liberal predecessor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung, including those aimed at trying to win over a hostile North Korea with unconditional aid.

But by the time he left office, he and many of his policies had become deeply unpopular. He was succeeded by the conservative former businessman Lee, who promised to overturn many of the programs of previous left-leaning governments, including ending a free flow of aid to prickly North Korea.

Even the one legacy Roh was admired for, of at least running a clean government, became badly tarnished when he was called in by prosecutors late last month to answer questions over his involvement in a corruption scandal.

The scandal centered around a leading businessman who had confessed to handing out bribes to a wide range of officials and politicians.

Roh complained that a massive media presence following the corruption allegations had turned him into a virtual prisoner inside his home in the town of his birthplace.

Extracts of his will were read out by KBS television.

One part, in an apparent reference to the huge pressure he had come under in recent weeks, said:

"It's hard. I've given other people a hard time. I can't even read books. Don't blame me. Life and death are one. Cremate me."

Roh had admitted that his wife had taken money from a wealthy local businessman while he was in office, and had publicly apologized. But he said he had not been aware at the time she had taken the money.

Local media said his wife was due to be called in again for questioning over the affair.

(Additional reporting by Kim Jung-hyun; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Paul Tait)

Land of Trials: How two foreigners were extorted in Thailand

'Stung for $60,000' ... Logan Hesse.

Geoff Strong

May 20, 2009

It seemed like a good idea to return to paradise. That was the memory a Melbourne-based American couple had of the Thai holiday island Phuket where they used to live.

When they did return for a short holiday early last month, it became a holiday in hell.

After a night in prison plus $60,000 in mysterious payments through a Kafkaesque legal system, it was a very expensive hell too.

Logan Hesse and Urica Lopez met in Phuket four years ago where they were both working.

In May 2007, the house they were living in burnt down while they were out to dinner with friends.

Mr Hesse says police investigators told them at the time the cause was an electrical fault.

Soon afterwards, they left Thailand to come to Melbourne where they were enrolled as students at La Trobe University.

Mr Hesse revealed his story yesterday following revelations Melbourne tourist Annice Smoel faced jail on the island over the theft of a beer mat.

He believes such cases are due to a tourism downturn because of the global financial crisis and recent civil unrest.

These had bitten into the usual source of "supplementary income" for Phuket's police and other officials, Mr Hesse claims.

"Their pockets are lighter so they are turning on tourists," he said.

Mr Hesse said nothing more had been heard about their house fire until they arrived at Bangkok last month. They were immediately detained and their passports were confiscated by police who told them a Phuket arrest warrant was outstanding for "criminal damage".

The costs started piling up from that point.

The couple were expected to cover the $265 price of an air ticket for a police officer to accompany them on to their island destination.

In Phuket, they were refused permission to speak directly to the US embassy and were slapped in jail for the night.

Their problems were compounded by arriving at the start of the Thai New Year, when all officaldom shuts down for a week.

Although the initial police investigation found an electrical fault was the cause of the fire, a subsequent report some months later changed the cause to a cigarette, even thought they were out at the time.

The house owner was pursuing them for $60,000 in a civil action.

Under Thai law, the civil action had to be resolved before any criminal trial could take place, so they were unable to leave.

Mr Hesse said this could have meant waiting in Thailand for years with no source of income.

The lawyer who claimed he had been appointed by the US embassy then tried to pocket $7000 until they made a fuss in his office.

The pair then negotiated with the house owner to reduce his claim to $50,000 and a further $1500 went to the police to have the matter heard expeditiously.

"In court the judges didn't even speak to us. We just had to hand over a wad of money to the landlord and we were fined 10,000 baht ($380) for criminal damage," Mr Hesse said.

"We were never able to find if the house was insured.

"I think the landlord was able to organise a second fire investigation, either because he had no insurance or he was under pressure from the bank.

"They knew we would come back because we had friends [in Thailand]."

Mr Hesse said he and Ms Lopez had set up a blog to tell their tale and hopefully recoup some of their total $60,000 in costs  from sympathisers.

Traveller

Banker arrested with B15m in cash on way to Cambodia

BahtandSold

The Crime Suppression Division has arrested a once-outstanding employee of the Government Housing Bank (GHB) in Si Sa Ket province for allegedly embezzling about 400 million baht.

CSD deputy chief Pol Col Supisal Phakdeenarunart said the division's officers arrested Somkiat Panyaworakhundet, 33, a teller at GHB's Saint Louis Soi 3 branch, foiling his attempts to leave the country at the same time.

Mr Somkiat was arrested yesterday morning as he was driving his brand-new BMW 5 Series along the Nakhon Ratchasima-Buri Ram Road in Si Sa Ket province, heading in the direction of the Thai-Cambodian border.

Earlier GHB president Khan Prachuabmoh asked the CSD to arrest Mr Somkiat after discovering irregular movements of money through his accounts. Suspicion started when ATM-supervising staff of GHB tracked the irregular movements.

The finding led to the conclusion that Mr Somkiat had embezzled about 400 million baht from GHB.

CSD Sub-division 1 chief Pol Col Pornsak Surasit said the suspect was aware that the police were hunting him, so he was trying to escape with the cash to the neighbouring country. Police managed to arrest him just before he reached Cambodia, the officer said.

It was reported that police seized about 15 million baht in cash from the banker.

Pol Col Pornsak said that in a subsequent search of Mr Somkiat's luxurious house in the Lat Phrao area, police found expensive audio systems, furniture and another brand-new luxury BMW sedan. The house is estimated to be worth about 40 million baht.

Police found that Mr Somkiat's bank accounts held about 400 million baht.

The GHB president said the suspect had not embezzled any money from the bank's clients, but that he had made off with the cash that belonged to the bank.

Mr Khan described GHB's first case of embezzlement as shocking.

Mr Somkiat's brand-new BMW 5 Series car was seized by Crime Suppression Division police yesterday.

Mr Somkiat allegedly abused his authority as a teller by transferring some 700,000-900,000 baht from GHB's interest accounts into his personal bank accounts every day for a year-and-a-half.

He allegedly made about 30 transfers per day, with each transfer amounting to 30,000 baht.

Transfers were made via ATMs to numerous accounts Mr Somkiat had opened with several banks located in the Siam Square area of Bangkok's Pathumwan district.

According to Mr Khan, Mr Somkiat made the transfers after working hours, a time when GHB had already finished its daily clearing.

"Mr Somkiat showed no signs of irregularities at all. He acted like an ordinary office worker who came to work by bus," Mr Khan said.

Mr Somkiat had won an award for being an outstanding member of GHB's staff, and he had earned the trust of clients at the branch he worked at, the bank's president said.

As he was an outstanding staff member, the bank's management had not initially suspected him of the crime.

Mr Somkiat said briefly in a press conference yesterday that he did not have any gambling debts, but that he just wanted the money to buy his house, cars and other belongings.

한대수 마지막 꿈 (Hahn Dae Soo - The Last Dream)

Hong Kong: Swine Flu Mutation Gives Unpredictable Toxicity

I wished on the Moon --Billie Holiday 1935