TAIPEI: Taiwanese authorities said they executed five death-row inmates yesterday, nearly a year after six prisoners were put to death. The justice ministry said the five were put to death in various parts of the island. They were the first executions ordered by Luo Ying-shay since she became justice minister last September. The inmates were anaesthetised and then shot, it said. There are now 47 prisoners on death row, according to the ministry. “The five were cold-blooded and cruel, devoid of conscience...they have left the family of the victims pains that could hardly be allayed,” deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang told reporters. The five, separately convicted on charges of murder, robbery and forced sex, had caused 11 deaths and left four injured, he said. Taiwan resumed executions in 2010 after a five-year hiatus, putting four people to death. There were five executions in 2011, six in 2012 and another six in 2013.
Woman jailed for trafficking
PHNOM PENH: A Taiwanese woman was yesterday jailed for 10 years by a Cambodian court for trafficking hundreds of people to work in slave-like conditions on fishing boats off Africa. Lin Yu Shin, owner of the defunct Giant Ocean International Co Ltd was arrested in the Cambodian tourist hub of Siem Reap last year. Five of her associates, who remain at large, were convicted in their absence and also handed 10-year sentences by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Lin’s firm allegedly began sending Cambodian workers to work on trawlers off the coasts of South Africa, Mauritius and Senegal in 2009 as well as Japan, Fiji, Qatar and Malaysia.
Indonesia jails official for graft
JAKARTA: An Indonesian court jailed the former chief energy regulator for seven years yesterday for accepting more than $1.5m in bribes. Rudi Rubiandini was caught in August at his Jakarta home with stacks of US and Singapore dollars, after anti-corruption investigators trailed a man delivering money to him. Judges at the Jakarta anti-corruption court found him guilty of accepting around $1.4m and Sg$200,000 in bribes from several companies, mainly in the energy sector.
Agencies
