13/01/2026

TUESDAY | JAN 13, 2026 7 Top UN court hears Rohingya case THE HAGUE: A landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against Rohingya will open at the United Nations’ top court. It will be the first genocide case the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hear in full in over a decade. The outcome will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, likely affecting South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ against Israel over the war in Gaza. Myanmar has denied accusations of genocide. “The case is likely to set critical precedents for how genocide is defined and how it can be proven, and how violations can be remedied,” said Nicholas Koumjian, head of the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar. Gambia filed the case at the ICJ, also known as the World Court, in 2019, accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya, a minority community in the remote western Rakhine state. Myanmar’s armed forces launched an offensive in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes and into neighbouring Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape and arson. A UN fact-finding mission concluded the 2017 military offensive had included “genocidal acts”. Myanmar authorities rejected that report, saying its military offensive was a legitimate counter-terrorism campaign in response to attacks by Muslim militants. In 2019 preliminary hearings in the ICJ case, Myanmar’s then leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, rejected Gambia’s accusations of genocide as “incomplete and misleading”. The hearings at the ICJ will mark the first time that Rohingya victims of the alleged atrocities will be heard by an international court although those sessions will be closed to the public and the media for sensitivity and privacy reasons. The hearings will span three weeks. – Reuters SOUTH KOREA ARRESTS 26 OVER SCAMS, SEX CRIMES SEOUL: A joint investigative team of Cambodian and South Korean police has arrested 26 suspects over alleged online scams and sex crimes targeting South Korean citizens, the Korean presidential office said yesterday. The bilateral task force found that the suspects allegedly extorted about US$18.25 million (RM74.15 million) from 165 South Koreans through online scams, in which they pretended to be police or financial regulators, said Kang Yu-jung, a spokeswoman at the Blue House. The suspects also allegedly coerced female victims into filming sex videos and photos for distribution, Kang said. Cambodian police made the arrests with assistance from the task force and South Korea’s intelligence agency. – Reuters PRO-MILITARY PARTY WINS SUU KYI’S FORMER SEAT YANGON: Myanmar’s main pro-military party won the parliamentary seat formerly held by Aung San Suu Kyi. A senior official from the Union Solidarity and Development Party speaking anonymously because they were not authorised to disclose results said they “won in Kawhmu township”. “We won 15 lower house seats out of 16 in Yangon region,” he said, after Kawhmu and dozens of other constituencies voted on Sunday in the second stage of a three-phase election. The final phase of the month-long vote is scheduled for Jan 25, with the military government saying the election will return power to the people. – AFP

Hong Kong media tycoon’s mitigation hearing begins

o Lai faces life sentence

HONG KONG: The High Court here began hearing the mitigation plea of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the final step before sentencing in a landmark national security trial that has drawn international condemnation and could see Lai jailed for life. Lai, 78, was last month found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under a China-imposed national security law, and conspiracy to publish seditious material, in a verdict that was criticised by the US, Britain, the European Union and others. Lai has denied all charges. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the verdict showed “the enforcement of Beijing’s laws to silence those who seek to protect freedom of speech and other fundamental rights”. Lai, a longstanding critic of the Chinese Communist Party and founder of the now shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, is the most high-profile figure to face prosecution under a years-long national security crackdown in the China-ruled city following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. The judges wrote that Lai had used his influence and the Apple Daily tabloid “to carry out a consistent campaign with a view to undermine the legitimacy or authority” of China and Hong Kong. They said Lai’s evidence was at times “contradictory, inconsistent, evasive and unreliable”. Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty. Five of them have become prosecution witnesses, including Cheung Kim-hung, former CEO of Lai’s once-listed company, Next Digital; Apple Daily’s former associate publisher Chan Pui-man; and former editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee. The mitigation hearings for all the defendants are expected to last four days. Sentencing will take place at a later date. Dozens of people have been queuing outside the court building since Friday, hoping to see Lai and other defendants. They have stayed overnight and slept on the street with blankets and cardboard. “It feels like the end of the road for my former colleagues. At least now they know where the finish line is, however long it may

Kevin Steel, defence lawyer for Lai, arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts. – REUTERSPIC

In possible signs of early concessions, some controversial economic policies pursued under Lam’s first term were revised or faced unexpected hurdles ahead of the congress, including on credit growth and a high-speed railway. Supporters of combining the two roles argue all other communist countries – China, North Korea, Cuba and Laos – vest both positions in a single leader, and note the move would bolster Lam’s economic reform agenda and strengthen his standing in meetings with foreign leaders. Sceptics see the change as emboldening a leader seen as a risk-taker who has already vastly expanded the powers of the security apparatus. The merger would be “the natural outcome of streamlining Vietnam’s political structure”, said Carl Thayer, a senior expert on Vietnam at the Australian Defence Force Academy, noting Lam has already effectively taken over some of the president’s powers with frequent overseas trips last year. – Reuters President Donald Trump said in an interview this month he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to release Lai, whom he called a “positive activist”, but hadn’t yet heard back from Xi. Five experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council have also called for Lai’s release on humanitarian grounds, saying his conviction showed a “dramatic decline in fundamental freedoms and judicial independence”. Hong Kong authorities say Lai has been given a fair trial and the national security law has brought stability. – Reuters

take,” sobbed a woman who gave her name as Ling, 47, who has been queuing since Friday and has been visiting her colleagues in prison. “As for Mr Lai, he knew exactly what path he was choosing. I think it brings him some comfort that we can finally enter the main courtroom in the days ahead.” Lai, a British citizen, has been held in solitary confinement for more than 1,800 days, with two of his children warning his health had deteriorated and if he died in prison it would cause “irreparable damage to Hong Kong’s reputation”.

BR I E F S

Vietnam party chief Lam seeks presidency HANOI: Communist Party chief To Lam (pic) is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s where President Xi Jinping heads the party and state. Two said Lam won support for his bid, while the third said the conclusion was unclear. In any case, the final decision rests with delegates who will be elected at the congress. The party’s secretariat did not reply to a request for comment.

The combination of the two top jobs for the next five years would mark a significant departure from Vietnam’s traditional power-sharing model. Only in exceptional periods after the death of incumbents have the positions been merged, including in 2024 when Lam held both positions for about three months. Should Lam succeed, the military, a

Next week some 1,600 delegates will gather in Hanoi to kick off a week long Communist Party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bid for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by the delegates and another three officials familiar with the matter told Reuters. While the sources said the party meeting backed Lam to remain party chief, the three people briefed by delegates gave differing accounts on the question of the presidency, a largely ceremonial role but one held by the military.

powerful faction within the party, would give up the presidency in exchange for maintaining a broad autonomy over the promotion of its senior officers, two sources said. One official said military leaders are negotiating “safeguards” to limit Lam’s authority. The Defence Ministry was not immediately available for comment.