Raja Petra challenges Govt to bring him to trial in London

Raja Petra can’t be tried in Britain

By TEH ENG HOCK
enghock@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA May 26, 2010: The Govern-ment cannot bring fugitive blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin to trial in Britain even if it wanted to.

Bar Council vice-president Lim Chee Wee said Malaysia would have to bring Raja Petra back to prosecute him.

“Essentially, it can’t be done,” he said when asked about Raja Petra’s challenge to the Malaysian Government to try him in Britain.

“You have to bring him back to prosecute him. To do that, you have to check if there is an extradition treaty with Britain.

“And if there is, it depends whether UK gives consent. One factor is whether he can get a fair trial in Malaysia,” said Lim.

It was reported on Monday that an online news portal had written that Raja Petra said he would seek a level playing field in his fight against charges of defamation and sedition as well as his appeal against his detention under the Internal Security Act.

Raja Petra refuted the notion that he should return home to defend himself at a Malaysian court, adding that it was the prosecution’s job to prove guilt.

He has two warrants of arrest issued against him for not attending up for his sedition trial in April and May last year.

Another lawyer, Norman Fernandez concurred with Lim that Raja Petra cannot be tried in Britain. “There is no provision to try him in UK. He is not a war criminal.

“And if he is tried there, and found guilty, can he serve his sentence in a UK prison?” he said.

Fernandez said Raja Petra was merely taunting the Malaysian authorities after he managed to slip out of the country.

“He’s thumbing his nose at the Malaysian authorities and saying ‘Catch me if you can’. He knows it is not easy to bring him back to Malaysia,” he said.

Fernandez said nobody knew Raja Petra’s residential status in Britain.

“If he is a visitor, then his term of stay in the country is limited. He could have entered Britain through special documents. Or as a refugee.

“We don’t know, and the British authorities have yet to shed light on this,” he said.
Former Selangor PKR Youth chief Hamidzun Khairuddin, who joined Umno in 2004, called Raja Petra a traitor to Malaysians.

Raja Petra challenges Govt to bring him to trial in London
 
PETALING JAYA May 25, 2010: Fugitive blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin has turned up in London and threw a challenge to the Malaysian Government to bring him to trial in the United Kingdom.

An online news portal reported that the writer had said that he would seek a level playing field in his fight against charges of defamation and sedition as well as his appeal against his detention under the Internal Security Act.

“I will take on the Government and I will fight them but I will do what Sun Tzu said, ‘Fight him in your territory.’

“So my territory is here in the UK,” he said in a speech in a hall in Holborn in London on Saturday.

The talk was reportedly organised by the Solicitors International Human Rights Group.

Raja Petra refuted the notion that he should return home to defend himself at a Malaysian court, adding that it’s the prosecution’s job to prove guilt.

He also said that Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is facing a sodomy charge, was in a different situation.

“Anwar has accepted the fact that he has to stay (in Malaysia) as he aspires to be the next prime minister. I have no political aspirations.

“I’ll probably be a free man longer than Anwar,” the Malaysian Insider news portal quoted him as saying.

In April, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said that the police were investigating how Raja Petra had used other channels to go overseas without any trace of immigration records when he left the country.

Raja Petra, who has two warrants of arrest issued against him for not turning up for his sedition trial in April and May last year — had possibly escaped to Thailand via Langkawi

By ZULKIFLI ABD RAHMAN
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

Could humans be infected by computer viruses?

 (PhysOrg.com) -- A scientist at the University of Reading has become the first person in the world to be infected by a computer virus.

 Dr Mark Gasson, from the School of Systems Engineering, contaminated a computer chip which had been inserted into his hand as part of research into human enhancement and the potential risks of implantable devices.

These results could have huge implications for implantable computing technologies used medically to improve health, such as heart pacemakers and cochlear implants, and as new applications are found to enhance healthy humans.

Dr Gasson says that as the technology behind these implants develops, they become more vulnerable to computer viruses.

"Our research shows that implantable technology has developed to the point where implants are capable of communicating, storing and manipulating data," he said. "They are essentially mini computers. This means that, like mainstream computers, they can be infected by viruses and the technology will need to keep pace with this so that implants, including medical devices, can be safely used in the future."

Dr Gasson will present his results next month at the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society in Australia, which he is also chairing.

A high-end Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip was implanted into Dr Gasson's left hand last year. Less sophisticated RFID technology is used in shop security tags to prevent theft and to identify missing pets.

The chip has allowed him secure access to his University building and his mobile phone. It has also enabled him to be tracked and profiled. Once infected, the chip corrupted the main system used to communicate with it. Should other devices have been connected to the system, the virus would have been passed on.


Dr Gasson said: "By infecting my own implant with a computer virus we have demonstrated how advanced these technologies are becoming and also had a glimpse at the problems of tomorrow.

"Much like people with medical implants, after a year of having the implant, I very much feel that it is part of my body. While it is exciting to be the first person to become infected by a computer virus in this way, I found it a surprisingly violating experience because the implant is so intimately connected to me but the situation is potentially out of my control.


"I believe it is necessary to acknowledge that our next evolutionary step may well mean that we all become part machine as we look to enhance ourselves. Indeed we may find that there are significant social pressures to have implantable technologies, either because it becomes as much of a social norm as say mobile phones, or because we'll be disadvantaged if we do not. However we must be mindful of the new threats this step brings."

Provided by University of Reading
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Govt delays decision on sukuk size and timing

Swings in emerging-market assets the reason, say sources

 It is still a 50:50 chance that Malaysia will try to tap in such a shaky market
- Sergey Dergachev of Union Investment

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has delayed making a decision on the size and timing of its first sale of Islamic bonds in eight years due to unstable market conditions, say two people with direct knowledge of the plan.

The decision would not be made this week because of swings in emerging-market assets, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because discussions were private. Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah didn’t pick up calls to his mobile phone seeking comment.

The Government had planned to determine the final size of the sukuk notes this week after completing an international roadshow to promote the securities to investors in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US. Sales of sukuk rose 31% so far in 2010 from the same period of last year.

“It’s still a 50:50 chance that Malaysia will try to tap in such a shaky market,” said Sergey Dergachev, who helps manage about US$6bil of emerging-market debt at Union Investment in Frankfurt.

Emerging-market assets have slumped over the past month as the debt crisis in the European Union fuelled concern the global economic recovery will stall. The extra yield investors demand to hold debt of developing nations over US treasuries widened 25 basis points in the past week to 345 basis points yesterday, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co’s EMBI+ Index.

The sukuk deal was subject to stable market conditions and it would take time for Middle Eastern investors to process any purchases, said the other unnamed person with knowledge of the matter.

Malaysia is turning to the international debt market for the first time since 2002 as it aims to increase development spending and boost economic growth. Indonesia this month trimmed the size of its planned sales of Islamic and yen-denominated debt because of concern that Greece’s debt crisis would spread.

The MSCI Emerging-Markets Index has lost 17% from its April 15 high on concern Europe’s 750 billion euro (US$922bil) aid package for indebted nations would fail to prevent a global economic slowdown.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday that it was considering issuing ringgit- and dollar-denominated debt among “various options” to meet funding needs.

The company planned to issue US$500mil of conventional bonds and RM1bil of sukuk to finance its second low-cost carrier airport project, Reuters reported last Friday, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the deal.

State-owned Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) Islamic dollar bonds rose, snapping a five-day drop.

The yield on Petronas’ 4.25% sukuk due in August 2014 fell two basis points to 3.94%, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. — Bloomberg