A 45-year-old man crashed an excavator into the South Korean prosecutors’ office on Tuesday (Nov 1) to protest the woman at the centre of an influence-peddling scandal gripping the country’s highest office.

The heavy vehicle smashed the gate and building of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul at around 8.20am (local time) and injured a security guard, police said.

The driver was arrested on site, police said.

The woman he was protesting against, Choi Soon-sil, was arrested on allegations she used her friendship with President Park Geun-hye to influence state affairs by gaining access to classified documents and benefited personally through non-profit foundations, officials said.

Choi was detained late on Monday (Oct 31), a prosecution official said, hours after she had arrived at the office of local prosecutors to answer questions.

Park is in the fourth year of a five-year term and the crisis threatens to complicate policymaking during the lame-duck period that typically sets in toward the end of South Korea’s single-term presidency.

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Choi accused of interfering in state affairs using relationship with President

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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Hong Kong – British banker Rurik Jutting was so consumed by his personality disorders and addictions that he was not in control of his actions when he killed two women in his Hong Kong apartment, a psychiatrist told his trial Tuesday.

Jutting, 31, has pleaded not guilty to two murder charges, instead pleading guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility – which was rejected by the prosecution.

Cambridge graduate Jutting is accused of murdering Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, two years ago, slashing their throats after saying he would pay them for sex.

He tortured Ningsih inside his apartment for three days before killing her and stuffing her body in a suitcase found on his balcony.

The prosecution grilled defence witness Richard Latham, a forensic psychiatrist from London, as they sought to argue Jutting was in control of his decisions at that time.

Jutting had said he had killed Ningsih, his first victim, because she might report him, which was a logical reason, prosecution counsel John Reading said.

“I suggest to you that he was in control of himself,” Reading said.

Latham argued Jutting’s decisions to kill were impaired by his use of cocaine and alcohol, combined with sexual sadism and narcissistic personality disorders.

“I think it’s wrong to say that he had a completely ordinary level of control,” Latham told the court.

Reading argued that Jutting’s shopping trips to buy rope, a hammer and other implements with which he meant to torture Mujiasih, his second victim, showed “significant planning”.

But Latham said Jutting’s behaviour was likely driven by the desire to be in control and cause harm for sexual pleasure.

“In relation to killing (Mujiasih), that likely wasn’t his intention,” he said.

Jutting was so severely dependent on drugs and alcohol it would have been almost impossible for him to resist his craving to take them – his consumption was “close to automatic and involuntary”, said Latham.

The court heard how Jutting’s life had spiralled in the years leading up to the killings.

Defence counsel Tim Owen said he had felt sidelined after being transferred to Hong Kong from London in 2013. He had been flagged as a serious risk to his employer, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, over a possible violation of regulations linked to marketing of a tax product.

Jutting’s work was being monitored and on one occasion he was unable to turn up to the London office in 2014 during a trip back home, after taking too much cocaine, Owen said.

As an excuse, he told his employers he had HIV.

He had been seeking out sex workers, including men, said Owen.

After killing Mujiasih, Jutting had called his boss and said: “I’m in a lot of trouble, you have to do something about the bank’s reputation,” Owen said.

British psychologist Derek Perkins, a defence witness, told the court that Jutting’s life was “out of control, it was chaotic”.

Perkins said the underlying issue was his personality disorder, which made him unable to cope with the problems he created.

His sexual sadism quickly escalated in the two to three years before the killings, Perkins said.

The coming together of his disorders led him to engage in “horrific behaviour”, he added.

Perkins argued Jutting had been shocked at what he had done to Ningsih and that killing her had not been part of his original plan, which was to act out fantasies inspired by violent pornography.

“Killing wasn’t part of the culmination of that fantasy,” said Perkins.

The defence case continues Tuesday afternoon.

SEOUL – South Korean shares fell marginally on Tuesday, enough to set a multi-week low, as investors grew more anxious over a political scandal whirling round President Park Geun-hye and a friend who allegedly garnered inappropriate influence over state affairs.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,007.39 points, just 0.04 percent lower than the previous close, but the lowest since Sept. 19.

Still, offshore investors turned net buyers, purchasing 14.1 billion won (S$17.21 million) worth of KOSPI shares for the day.

And, the won edged up on better than expected October trade data and a survey showing stronger than expected factory activity in China, South Korea’s biggest trading partner.

The won was quoted at 1,139.9 to the dollar at the conclusion of onshore trade, up 0.4 percent compared to Tuesday’s close of 1,144.5.

334389

Photo Gallery

Choi accused of interfering in state affairs using relationship with President

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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