From: lim@merlion.CWRU.Edu (Hock Koon Lim)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Re: arrest of Business Times journalists
Date: 14 Dec 1992 15:47:20 GMT
Organization: Information Network Services, Case Western Reserve
Distribution: world
Reply-To: lim@po.CWRU.Edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: merlion.ins.cwru.edu


In article <ekevik-131292230818@129.240.210.237>, ekevik@media.uio.no (Oystein Ekevik) writes:
$ In article <Bz62I6.Et1@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, sbog6936@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Bin
$ Ong) wrote:
$ > 
$ > Just read in the latest issue of SIFlash on the GOPHER - that 4 BT journalists
$ > had been arrested for violation of the Official Secrets Act in releasing
$ > Dept of Stats estimate that 2nd qtr economic growth rate in Singapore was
$ > less than 5%. And now the kicker: of the 4 journalists, 2 had defence
$ > attorneys from the bigies in law firms in town. Specifically, one 
$ > has a defence attorney from Lee&Lee, and the other, from ShookLin&Bok. 
$ > For the uninitiated, Lee&Lee is Snr Minister Lee and his wife's law
$ > firm (hence Lee&Lee), while ShookLin&Bok (if I remember correctly), had
$ > been a major source of the current High Court bench.
$ > 
$ (stuff deleted)
$ 
$ Can you share with us the names of journalists? Need that for the record.
$ 


  Well, this is the report from the TECHnet Gopher server:

========== SIFlash's News services ==================
 
Four people have been charged for violating the Official Secrets'
Act - Manu Bhaskaran, Crosby's economics research director;
Raymond Foo Jong Chen, regional economist at Crosby's Malaysian
research office; Tharman Shanmugaratnam, MAS economics department
director; and BT editor Patrick Daniel. They were formally
arrested earlier this wee and released on police bail of $5000
each.

All have claimed trial. District Judge Tan Siong Thye set 6 Feb
as the date for the pre-trial conference with Senior District
Judge Richard Magnus.

The charges follow BT article on 29 June written by Anna Teo,
with the headlines, "2nd qtr: Flash estimates point to below 5pc
growth". The government later announced a growth figure of 4.7%
for the quarter.

Shanmugaratnam, 35, is charged with unlawfully communicating the
flash estimate of 4.6% given to him in confidence by the
Department of Statistics to Bhaskaran, 34. The latter faces 3
charges - receiving the information, passing it on to Raymond Foo
and BT senior correspondent, Kenneth James. Foo, 28, is alleged
to have received the information and passed it on to his Crosby
colleagues in Singapore.

Daniel, 38, a former MTI offical is charged with having received
the information from Mr James and communicating to unauthorised
person, the readers of BT, in the papers.

The Internal Security Department searched the BT newsroom on 13
Aug, and seized some material and took statements from four staff
members - Daniel, James, Ms Teo, and associate editor Margaret
Thomas. Dozens of others from stock broking firms, government
departments and government-linked bodies were also questioned.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Christine Lee applied for the impounding
of the international and restricted passports of the four accused
and was granted the application, even though the defence counsel
objected to it. Bhaskaran, Foo and Daniel successfully applied
for their passports to be returned so that they could travel on
condition that they report to ISD on their return.

The defence counsel consists of K. Shanmugam of Allen & Gledhill
for Daniel; Tan Kok Quan of Lee & Lee for Foo; Michael Khoo of
Michael Khoo & B B Ong for Bhaskaran; Alfonso Ang of Shook Lin
& Bok for Shanmugaratnam.

===== end of SIFlash news services ========

-- 
Hock-Koon Lim, Information Network services
Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland, Ohio, USA  44106   
(216) 368-2982        lim@ins.cwru.edu
Xref: sparky soc.culture.asean:8696 soc.culture.arabic:5628