A Laotian court yesterday sentenced two European journalists and an American pastor to 15 years in jail in connection with the slaying of a village security official, family sources said.
In a trial lasting about 2-1/2 hours in the northern Laotian town of Phonesavanh, the three men were convicted of two charges -- obstructing police work and illegal possession of a gun and an explosive device, said the sources who attended the trial.
French cameraman Vincent Reynaud, Belgian photojournalist Thierry Falise and the Reverend Naw Karl Mua, a Hmong-American pastor, were sentenced immediately after being convicted.
There was no immediate reaction from the governments of the three men, but human rights groups have often said that the justice system in Laos merely obeys its secretive communist rulers.
The Laotian government is also accused of persecuting ethnic Hmong people, about whom Falise and Reynaud were trying to report with the help of Mua, their interpreter.
It was not clear if the three had an avenue for appeal, said the sources contacted by telephone. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We will have to wait and see how things turn out. We were quite shocked by the severity of the sentence," said one source.
The three were arrested on June 4, a day after what the government says was a nighttime clash between Hmong rebels and villagers that left one security guard dead in the village of Ban Khai.
Three Hmong rebels also were arrested and tried along with the foreigners. They were also convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail each, said the sources. A fourth rebel who escaped was sentenced in absentia to the same punishment.
All seven men were also ordered to pay 11 million kip (US$1,000) each as compensation to the family of the victim, said the sources.
Ban Khai village is 47km from Phonesavanh, which is 175km northeast of the Laotian capital, Vientiane.
The sources said the prosecutors told the court that Reynaud, Falise and Mua were part of the Hmong rebel group that took part in the fire-fight with the villagers. They said a bag was found in a shack the morning after the clash containing a bomb and a gun.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese