World

Corruption: Court Grants Ex-South Korean President Bail One Year after Arrest

Published

7 years ago

March 6, 2019

Eric

Jailed former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was granted bail on Wednesday, nearly a year after he was arrested over corruption charges.

The CEO-turned president, who served from 2008 to 2013, was found guilty on charges including bribery and embezzlement and sentenced to 15 years in prison last October.

Lee appealed the decision and in January made a request for bail, citing old age and potential health complications from diabetes and sleep apnea.

The Seoul High Court approved his request for bail on Wednesday but said its decision was based on legal restrictions around detaining Lee during the ongoing appeals process, rather than his ill health.

Lee’s arrest warrant expires on April 8 and raises the risk of Lee tampering with evidence during an ongoing appeals trial, the court said, adding it decided to put him under “home confinement with strict conditions”.

“The conditional release will serve to maintain the effect of the arrest warrant and the defendant can always be detained again in case of any infraction,” the court said in a statement.

The conditions of Lee’s 1 billion won (US$886,000) bail strictly confines him to his residence in southern Seoul and limits his interaction to immediate family members and legal representatives.

“I fully understand (the conditions),” Lee was cited as saying by Yonhap news agency.

“I never approached the witnesses even before the arrest,” he said, adding: “I draw a strict line between private and public matters.”

Television footage showed Lee, dressed in a dark suit, walking out from the detention centre, before getting into a black sedan and driving out past a small group of aides and supporters.

Lee was found guilty of creating slush funds of tens of millions of dollars and accepting bribes from Samsung Electronics in return for a presidential pardon for its chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was jailed for tax evasion.

The conservative politician has denied wrongdoing and labelled the allegations as “political revenge”.

South Korean presidents have a tendency to end up in prison after their time in power, usually, once their political rivals have moved into the presidential Blue House.

All four of South Korea’s living presidents have been convicted of criminal offences but Lee is the first former leader to be granted bail.

Lee’s successor, Park Geun-hye, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined millions of dollars for bribery and abuse of power.

She was ousted in 2017 over a nationwide corruption scandal that prompted massive street protests.

(AFP)

Africa

Muammar Gaddafi’s Son Saif al-Islam Assassinated

Published

10 hours ago

February 4, 2026

Eric

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has died at the age of 53, his political team announced on Tuesday.

The Head of the political team told Libyan News Agency that the young Gaddafi died near the country’s border with Algeria.

His sister confirmed the development, but did not specify the cause of death.

Born in 1972, the younger Gaddafi was once widely seen as his father’s heir apparent. The International Criminal Court had issued a warrant for his arrest, seeking to prosecute him for crimes against humanity related to his alleged role in crushing opposition demonstrations in 2011.

USA

US Group Appeals to Trump to Help Halt Christian Genocide in Nigeria

Published

2 weeks ago

January 24, 2026

Eric

A strong and passionate appeal has been made to US President, Donald Trump, and the international community, to take immediate and conclusive actions, in collaboration with the Nigerian government, to halt the upsurge of genocidal killings and maiming, being carried out by extreme Islamist terrorists and other insurgents, in the country, particularly its northern region.

The ‘Save Our Souls’ (SOS) message was contained in a statement from the Save Nigeria Group (SNGUSA), a civil society body based in the USA, endorsed by Stephen Osemwegie and Victor O. Ben, its President/Founder and respectively.

The statement was against the backdrop of renewed killings and kidnapping by the armed militants in the northern Nigeria’s Middle Belt, including on Sunday, January 18, 2026, where innocent Christians were attacked in Kajulu, Kaduna State, resulting in the abduction of over 177 worshippers, during Sunday worships.

While expressing the group’s profound gratitude to President Trump, for his pivotal leadership and empowering the 2025 Christmas Day’s fatal airstrikes against the ISIS and Lakurawa camps in Sokoto, which it said was a powerful message to terrorists and that it brought hope to persecuted communities across Nigeria, the statement asserted that the recent brutal attacks in Kaduna and others indicated that the job was not finished.

(SNGUSA), the US-based not-for-profit, which collaborates in its activities with the Save Nigeria Initiated (SNI), a coalition based in Nigeria, also called on religious groups, traditional rulers and the civil society leaders to synergise, in order to halt the massacres and insecurity, and prevail on the United Nations’ Secretary General and others global bodies, to urgently intervene in Nigeria’s worsening insecurity and humanitarian crisis.

The massive kidnap of Christian worshippers in Kajulu, Kaduna, which was initially denied by the Nigerian police, but later confirmed by it, had been condemned across the world, hence the appeal by SNGUSA.

USA

US’ll Take Greenland by Any Possible Means, Trump Vows

Published

3 weeks ago

January 13, 2026

Eric

President Donald Trump vowed on Sunday that the United States would take Greenland “one way or the other,” warning that Russia and China would “take over” if Washington fails to act.

Trump says controlling the mineral-rich Danish territory is crucial for US national security given increased Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.

“If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will, and I’m not letting that happen,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, despite neither country laying claim to the vast island.

Trump said he would be open to making a deal with the Danish self-governing territory “but one way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland.”

Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump’s threats over the island, which plays a strategic role between North America and the Arctic, and where the United States has had a military base since World War II.

A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.

The vast majority of its population and political parties have said they do not want to be under US control and insist Greenlanders must decide their own future — a viewpoint continuously challenged by Trump.

“Greenland should make the deal, because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over,” Trump warned, as he mocked its defenses.

“You know what their defense is, two dog sleds,” he said, while Russia and China have “destroyers and submarines all over the place.”

Denmark’s prime minister warned last week that any US move to take Greenland by force would destroy 80 years of transatlantic security links.

Trump waved off the comment saying: “If it affects NATO, it affects NATO. But you know, (Greenland) need us much more than we need them.”

AFP