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The Bangkok South Criminal Court decided to extend bail this afternoon (Wednesday) for Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, a key leader of the anti-establishment Ratsadon protest group, until May 25th, and eased restrictions on her movements as well.

The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that the court’s decision has spared Rung from being sent back to jail on remand, as her bail was scheduled to expire today.

The TLHR said that the bail conditions imposed by the court remain unchanged, except that the court has allowed Rung to leave home between 6am and 6pm, instead of being subjected to a 24-hour curfew.

Rung is to be tried on lèse majesté charges at Bangkok South Criminal Court after she wore a crop top shirt at the Siam Paragon shopping mall in December 2020, with words written on her abdomen which have been deemed to offend the monarchy.

She will also appear before the Criminal Court and the Ayutthaya Provincial Court tomorrow, which are expected to issue orders pertaining to other charges against her.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)

Thailand’s cabinet yesterday (Tuesday) endorsed the Royal Thai Air Force’s (RTAF) plan to buy four fighter jets, at an estimated cost of 13.8 billion baht, to replace its fleet of aging F-16 Falcon jets, which have been in service for about four decades.

The spending will be spread over the next four fiscal years.

Air Vice Marshal Prapas Sornchaidee, the RTAF spokesman, said today (Wednesday) that the air force has not yet specified the type of aircraft to be purchased.

He said two committees have been set up. One is chaired by RTAF deputy commander-in-chief ACM Thanasak Metanan to study the type of fighter jets to be bought. The other is headed by RTAF Aide-de-camp ACM Panpakdee Pattanakul and is responsible for the procurement, adding that full details of the project will be submitted to the cabinet in due course.

While no decision has been made about the type of jets to buy, according to the spokesman, the RTAF commander-in-chief is looking at the US based Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter, noting that its price has substantially reduced of late.

He also said that the final decision rests with the procurement committee.

The F-35 family includes the F-35A conventional take-off and landing variant, the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing version and the F035C carrier model. All three are single seaters and have similar performance characteristics and identical advanced avionics.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)

Conditions for media in Vietnam have rarely been so bad, media analysts say, with the country jailing over a dozen reporters in the past 12 months, and courts handing out unusually long sentences.

The rise in arrests came as Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party held its 13th Party Congress and voted for the next five-year National Assembly term in 2021.

International rights groups believe Hanoi intensified efforts to suppress dissent or opposition voices during the elections and at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has distracted the West from scrutinizing Vietnam’s actions.

“Vietnam has accelerated its rights abuses across the board, going after community activists, human rights defenders, and political dissidents in a systematic manner that points to a Hanoi plan to wipe out any opposition to its rule,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch Asia division.

Data from media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows an increase in the number of journalists behind bars, with 43 detained.

“The current situation of press freedom in Vietnam has rarely been so bad,” said Daniel Bastard, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “Vietnam is the world’s third-largest prison for journalists, right after autocratic regimes like Xi [Jinping]’s China, and junta-ruled Myanmar.”

The decline in media rights last year, started with the trial of members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, including founder and president Pham Chi Dung in January, and ending with the sentencing of prominent journalists and activists in December.

Those cases included the award-winning Pham Doan Trang and Le Trong Hung, a journalist who announced plans to run as an independent candidate in the National Assembly election.

The trend of arrests spilled over into the new year, with a Hanoi court on Tuesday sentencing Mai Phan Loi, a former journalist and founder of a nonprofit, to 48 months in jail for tax evasion.

Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam founder Dung received one of the longest prison sentences handed down to a journalist worldwide, with a 15-year term on charges of propaganda against the state, according to RSF.

Trang, who is internationally recognized for her fight for democracy and human rights in Vietnam, also received a lengthy sentence. A court ordered her detained for nine years — longer than the penalty prosecutors requested.

In other cases, bloggers and social media users who posted content critical of the Communist Party were arrested or prosecuted on charges such as “propaganda against the state” and “abusing democratic freedom.”

Activists and the international community view the convictions as a warning to dissidents.

“Human rights in Vietnam have deteriorated in 2021, as the Communist Party used bogus articles of the 2015 Penal Code, including ‘propaganda against the state’ and ‘abuse of democratic freedoms,’ to suppress dissenters and freedom of expression,” said Vu Quoc Ngu, director of Vietnam’s Defend the Defenders.

The organization documents rights violations in Vietnam and provides cybersecurity and journalism training.

Hanoi has dismissed criticism of its human rights record.

After the sentencing in November of five journalists from media outlet Bao Sach, or The Clean Newspaper, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang, said Vietnam’s consistent policy is to “respect, protect and promote human rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”

Civil organizations in Vietnam have petitioned President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly chair Vuong Dinh Hue to request that Hanoi abolish three of the country’s laws, including those on propaganda and abuse of democratic freedoms.

The rights groups described the laws as “so opaque and so ill-defined that they can easily be, and indeed have been, abused by law enforcement to prevent citizens from exercising not only their constitutional rights but also those defined by the [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights].”

The wife of one of the journalists detained on propaganda charges last year, told VOA she has petitioned the U.S., European Union and other countries to intervene in her husband’s case.

Do Le Na, whose husband Hung was arrested in March, said the journalist-turned- political candidate is “facing a very high and unfair prison sentence.”

“I cannot appeal this injustice at any agency in the country because no one stands up to protect my rights. I have to seek help from human rights organizations, foreign embassies, and governments of advanced countries that have an interest in human rights,” Na said.

She denied the charges against her husband and added that Hung is in poor health.

“It is such a completely absurd charge,” she said.

Western neglect

Ngu, a 2019 Franco-German Human Rights and the Rule of Law awardee, believes the pandemic is partly to blame for the increased repression.

“When the world is focusing on controlling the pandemic, Western countries are less interested in Vietnam’s human rights situation and so the Vietnamese Communist government has free hands to suppress it,” said Ngu, who was once detained for participating in an anti-China protest in Hanoi in 2011.

Robertson, of Human Rights Watch, shared a similar view, telling VOA, “Vietnam has quite clearly taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the distraction of the international community that resulted, to try and finish off its opponents.”

The U.S. and Europe have condemned the conviction of journalists and activists, including Trang.

Vice President Kamala Harris raised human rights issues with Vietnamese leaders during a visit in August to bolster strategic ties with the country.

At a news conference, Harris said she discussed the release of political dissidents but did not disclose further details, saying only that the U.S. must “continue to speak up, when necessary, about human rights issues.”

Robertson believes the U.S. and its allies need to do more to stop Vietnam’s “systematic rights abuses.”

“The security situation in the South China Sea and Vietnam’s new role as the country to which manufacturing and supply chains are fleeing from China, have marginalized human rights issues,” said Robertson. “This needs to stop.”

President Joe Biden’s administration has promised to place democracy and human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. Secretary Antony Blinken has said that the “administration will stand against human rights abuses wherever they occur, regardless of whether the perpetrators are adversaries or partners.”

Source: Voice of America

Thai politics is notorious for its twists and turns, a rollercoaster of power plays that leaves voters constantly giddy and sometimes sickened. 2022 will be no different, with a host of crucial events and turning points that will shape the country’s future. Can the Prayut-led government survive its third year and remain until its term ends in 2023? Who will win Bangkok’s top job in the first gubernatorial election to be held in almost 10 years?

Thai PBS World’s Political Desk examines five political highlights to look out for in the year ahead.

Prayut’s tenure dispute

Controversy over Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s term is a crucial issue this year, as it affects not just him but also his government.

Prayut has been prime minister since August 2014, taking over a few months after leading a military coup that ousted an elected government in May that year.

Now, nearing almost eight years in office, a legal question has arisen over Prayut’s position. The 2017 Constitution stipulates that “the prime minister shall not hold office for more than eight years in total, whether or not consecutively”.

Legal experts are divided over how this deadline should be interpreted.

Some reckon the eight-year period runs from when the current charter was enacted on April 6, 2018. Others, including some lawmakers, are convinced that Prayut’s term expires in August, when he will have served eight years since taking the helm in 2014.

Opposition politicians are planning to take the dispute to the Constitutional Court.

Observers say regardless of what the court decides, the ruling will have huge implications.

First, it will create a crucial precedent since no previous Thai charter has set a time limit for the PM’s tenure, said Yuthaporn Issarachai, a political scientist at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University.

Second, it is expected to spark a power struggle in Parliament, he added. If the court rules that Prayut’s tenure expires this August, then Parliament will have to choose a new prime minister from the existing list of PM candidates.

Prayut is the sole candidate of the ruling Palang Pracharath Party, and if lawmakers can’t choose him, they will have to opt for candidates from other coalition partners and the opposition camp.

The other candidates include former Pheu Thai executive Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, founder of the new Thai Sang Thai Party, former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva from the coalition Democrat Party, and Anutin Charnvirakul of Bhumjaithai.

Palang Pracharath could only hang on to the premier’s seat by winning a two-thirds majority (500 votes) from both houses of Parliament to run a non-listed candidate or outsider.

The court will also decide Prayut’s political future, as it will rule whether he can return as PM in the next poll or be ousted from politics altogether, said Yuthaporn.

House dissolution and general election?

The current government’s term ends in March 2023, but the premier can dissolve the House this year and call a snap election.

Yuthaporn is convinced that pressure from coalition partners over COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis will see Prayut leave office before March 2023.

Authorities recently stepped up measures to combat the spread of ultra-transmissible Omicron variant.

However, not all political experts see signs of an early election.

Stithorn Thananithichot reckons the government will see out its full term with ease.

“I see no [significant] pressure from outside, either from anti-establishment protesters, from opposition parties or from within the party or coalition partners,” said the director of the Office of Innovation for Democracy at King Prajadhipok’s Institute.

“The protests are losing momentum, while the coalition is happy being part of the government,” he added.

Governments usually time their dissolution of the House to exploit an upturn in the polls but there is no evidence this will occur.

“It will only be possible for Prayut to call for House dissolution if the government wins a surge in popularity by successfully handling the pandemic, reopening the country and reviving the economy,” the analyst said.

“But I see no signs of this happening. I don’t see the government becoming popular again or coalition partners willing to go to the polls just yet. I see no good time for the premier to do that [dissolve the House].”

Bangkok governor election

By mid-2022, Bangkokians should have cast their ballots at the first gubernatorial elections in nine years.

Serving as an indicator for the general election, the Bangkok poll sparks fierce battles among major parties as they seek to woo voters. This time, both government and opposition parties have set their sights on the governor’s post.

Several strong candidates have thrown their hats into the ring, including former transport minister Chadchart Sittipunt, who is topping most opinion surveys. Also joining the fray are academic Suchatvee Suwansawat from the Democrat Party and former senator Rosana Tositrakul.

However, a surprise could lie in store as Bangkokians are notorious for being independent-minded and unpredictable swing-voters.

Censure debate

The opposition parties are expected to hit the government with a no-confidence motion in May. Don’t rule out the possibility of another plot to unseat the PM, following the one he managed to survive last year.

Last September’s censure debate saw ruling party secretary-general Thammanat Prompow reportedly engineer a plot to oust Prayut by amassing no-confidence votes against him.

This ruling party power struggle is expected to simmer on if the conflict between the PM and Thammanat remains unsolved, continuing to threaten Prayut’s premiership.

Changes to parties’ landscape

As we count down to a general election, 2022 will see political parties – large, small and newcomers – busily preparing for the polls.

A new organic bill to change the one-ballot voting system to a two-ballot system will benefit big parties and spur different electoral strategies.

“We will see a ‘homecoming’ of former Pheu Thai MPs [who defected previously], including key party executives like Khunying Sudarat,” Stithorn predicted.

Pheu Thai, now the main opposition party, came to power in 2011 under the two-ballot system.

The new system will favor big parties like Pheu Thai and Palang Pracharath, while medium-sized and smaller parties like Future Forward’s incarnation Move Forward will pick up fewer votes, Stithorn said.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

Thailand’s opposition Pheu Thai party is to grill the government in parliament, alleging a cover-up over the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak in Thailand, which has reportedly spread to 56 provinces since last March, resulting in the cull of almost 160,000 pigs.

The cabinet approved a 574 million baht budget today (Tuesday) to be used to compensate more than 4,900 pig farmers for the cull, carried out between March 23rd and October 15th 2021.

Many more pigs, including breeders, have died naturally from the disease.

Pheu Thai party leader Chonlanan Srikaew said that the alleged cover-up of the ASF epidemic is serious and could lead to the collapse of the government, as he accused it of failing to contain animal diseases, like lumpy skin disease in cattle and ASF in pigs, and for negligence causing serious damage to the national economy.

He said the party will submit an urgent verbal motion to Parliament next week, seeking to question the government about the alleged cover-up and asking how it will solve the disease problem.

If no cabinet ministers come forward to take responsibility for the ASF outbreak and the damage caused, he warned that the party would seek a censure debate and ask the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to investigate whether who, if anyone, should be held accountable.

The party’s chief whip, Visuth Chainaroon, displayed a document to the media, showing that 400 million baht was disbursed from government coffers last July to be used to contain the spread of ASF.

He said the party will demand a revamp of the Livestock Development, following its alleged failure to contain lumpy skin disease, which emerged in cattle in Thailand in 2021.

Government Spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said today that the government had assigned the Livestock Development Department to adopt early warning and risk assessment systems, to contain and prevent outbreaks of animal diseases such as ASF.

He explained, however, that ASF has been around for more than 100 years and, so far, there is no vaccine to prevent or medication to cure the disease.

He said the Livestock Development Department, working with Chulalongkorn University, has been developing a vaccine against ASF, which is expected to enter trials this year.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

On January 7th, 2022, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen became the first national leader to visit Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

Before Hun Sen even set foot in the beleaguered country, his administration’s announcement of the trip to Myanmar, as the current chairman of the ASEAN, drew waves of criticisms.

Apart from the predictable international outcry, expressions of domestic sentiment against the trip were just as loud. Days prior to his trip, two bombs exploded near the Cambodian Embassy.

Although armed revolutionary groups, operating within Yangon Region, had announced that they would be doing all that they could to express rejection of Cambodia’s trip to Myanmar, none of them officially claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Nevertheless, the trip went ahead, despite groups, such as Amnesty International, issuing pointed statements calling for Hun Sen to cancel the trip, adding that, if he really wants to help Myanmar and Cambodia, he must lead ASEAN in a clear and decisive manner to handle grave human rights violations.

The people’s reaction

As soon as local news media reported that Hun Sen would be visiting Myanmar, protests erupted. It used to be just in Yangon, where protests were held when heads of states visited, but even rural areas witnessed negative reactions.

In the Sagaing Region, multiple towns saw mobs of protesters coming out onto the streets.

“His trip is simply to support the military dictatorship. It will not benefit us in any way,” said a protester from Kale in the Sagaing Region.

In the Yangon Region, flash mob protests held up effigies of Hun Sen’s coffin, burning them and posters of both Hun Sen and Min Aung Hlaing.

“Everyone knows how Hun Sen treated his own nation. This is just another dictator meeting yet another dictator. The people gain nothing from this,” said a source close to the participants in the flash mob protest.

The protestors have managed to avoid capture to this day.

There were also strong negative reactions on social media, especially on Hun Sen’s Facebook page, with Myanmar’s citizens deluging the comments section, to the point where comments had to be suspended.

Were there results?

Hun Sen allegedly took a million doses of COVID-19 vaccine with him, as a sign of friendship towards Min Aung Hlaing’s junta administration.

Apart from the supposed gift, nothing has changed.

“Nothing was officially agreed upon regarding the five-point ASEAN policy. Hun Sen did not manage to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. Brunei’s ASEAN Special Representative had made the two main priorities the release of prisoners and meeting Aung San Suu Kyi. None of that was achieved,” said a political analyst in Yangon who requested anonymity.

Regarding meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, recently jailed for five years with more prison time to come, the foreign affairs ministry of Cambodia denied that Hun Sen had even asked to meet her.

Prior to the trip, military spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun, while not confirming that Hun Sen had requested a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, claimed in an interview that Hun Sen would not be allowed to meet with her.

The official statement, released by Min Aung Hlaing, says that Myanmar is thankful for the efforts of Cambodia and ASEAN to help Myanmar and that he will continue to carry out regional development and peace.

Once again, however, there was no mention of any of the five point policies put forward by ASEAN.

In the end, despite Hun Sen’s premature exclamation that the trip might take longer than two days, he stayed for just one and a half days, with the last act for his trip being a visit to a pagoda in Nay Pyi Taw.

There were also rumours, reported by local news media, that a ceasefire for the whole of 2022 was discussed with Hun Sen.

After he had returned home, however, battles only intensified, with the most recent conflict being air strikes on the city of Loikaw by Min Aung Hlaing’s forces, forcing most of its inhabitants to flee.

“There are no negotiations to be had with Min Aung Hlaing in the first place. He knows that the chance of any reconciliation right now is slim to none, especially when he is torturing, killing, looting, burning and bombing civilians. What did Hun Sen think he could do? Have a heart-to-heart talk, from one dictator to another?” asked another source, who also requested anonymity as he has been helping arrange donations, from areas such as Yangon and Mandalay, for war refugees in rural areas.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

Thailand and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the well-known Malay Muslim separatist group, will begin their long-awaited third round of peace talks on January 11th in Kuala Lumpur. This time it is hoped that there will be sufficient mutual trust to move beyond the confidence-building stage, towards some concrete action plans.

To stop the ongoing violence and abuse, both sides need to put forward plans on which they can agree. Judging from the situation on the ground, the dialogue process, even though it has been sluggish, has already saved hundreds of lives and prevented many more casualties.

For the past two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, dialogue among key players, in particular the Thai team and the BRN Malay-Muslim insurgents, has stalled. Without direct communication, as before, violence has become an alternative means to send indirect messages to opposing parties. If this trend continues, the prospect for a durable peace will again become elusive.

Therefore, this week’s meeting is pivotal for the building of further mutual trust and agreeing on steps towards something concrete. The 7-member Thai dialogue team is headed by Gen Wallop Raksanoh, while the BRN 7-member team is led by Anas Abdulrahman. The facilitator is the veteran Tan Sri Rahim Mohd Noor, the former Malaysian police chief. All participants understand and know one another very well. They can make progress.

Over the past years, several ideas have been discussed and disputed, including those related to the lifting of checkpoints, law enforcement, administration and safety guarantees for returnees, among others. According to an intelligence source, nearly one-third of the over 900 BRN members have crossed over to the Thai side during the past two years, due to COVID-19 and the lack of employment. Some of these BRN members want guarantees from the Thai authorities that they will not face arrest.

The Thai side would like to establish broader safety zones, which would require cooperation from BRN members in the field. For years, the Thai security apparatus has tried to identify the key figures within the movement, who have the overall command of the insurgents, in efforts to reduce violence. That helps explain why the Thais have been eager to talk to anyone in or associated with the movement.

There could be surprises at the Kuala Lumpur meeting if the facilitator encourages both sides to reach a safety zone agreement, with assurances from Malaysia. So far, the new government, under Prime Minister , has sent positive signals to the Thai side concerning the situation in Southern Thailand. The Malaysian leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who was scheduled to visit Thailand at the end of December, had to postpone his trip twice due to the severe flooding in central Malaysia.

Familiar issues related to decentralisation, the administration of Islamic affairs and more, which require some heavy lifting, remain on the table. They are still valid and will be discussed further, when mutual confidence improves and the timing is right. The fact that the BRN has agreed to hold talks with the Thai team means there still is an opportunity to make peace and more progress to end violence in the deep south once and for all.

According to the Deep South Watch database, about 7,300 people have been killed since 2004. After the first peace talks in 2013, the number of casualties declined. There have, however, been intermittent spikes in those years, when dialogue between the government and Malay Muslim insurgents was absent.

To improve the government’s coordination efforts in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha signed order No. 19/2564 in September, to realign all concerned agencies down there and have them work together in a holistic manner. Subsequently, a special coordinating team was set up to perform the so-called “command and control” of all activities related to development and strategic matters in the three provinces. In addition, a special committee of representatives involved in solving the southern problem has also been set up to help with the ongoing efforts to bring peace to Southern Thailand.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

HONG KONG — A general who led China’s anti-terrorism special forces in Xinjiang has been promoted to head up the People’s Liberation Army in Hong Kong, state media has reported.

The appointment comes as Beijing is remolding the international business hub in its own authoritarian image after huge and sometimes violent democracy protests in 2019.

Under the city’s mini-constitution, Hong Kong has its own police force, but China has maintained military barracks there since the city’s 1997 handover when colonial Britain’s forces left.

A new national security law has also empowered the mainland’s security agents to operate openly in the city.

China’s official Xinhua news agency announced on Sunday that major general Peng Jingtang, deputy chief of staff of the People’s Armed Police, has been appointed the Hong Kong garrison’s commander by president Xi Jinping.

Among the few details released on state media about Peng’s career is his former post as the chief of staff of the Armed Police Corps in Xinjiang, part of China’s paramilitary police force.

Three years ago Reference News — a branch of Xinhua — reported that a new special force called Mountain Eagle Commando had been formed in Xinjiang “for the anti-terrorism needs in the region and across China”.

Peng was quoted in the report as being the force’s leader.

“Every single bullet of ours is aiming at the battlefield,” he was quoted as saying, alongside revealing that the ammunition spent by Mountain Eagle in training sessions over a single year was three times what other units use.

China has blanketed western Xinjiang in a security crackdown in recent years after ethnic riots in the capital followed by attacks by Uyghur militants.

Dense deployment of paramilitary forces and massive surveillance systems were installed to stamp out what the ruling Communist Party described as widespread Islamic extremism and separatism in the region.

Campaigners say at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities have been detained in Xinjiang camps alongside a deliberate campaign to assimilate the minority group’s religion, language and culture.

Washington has labelled the crackdown a genocide.

After initially denying the existence of the Xinjiang camps, China later defended them as vocational training centers aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism. Beijing denies a genocide is taking place.

Peng is replacing his predecessor Chen Daoxiang, who is reaching retirement age.

Under Chen’s leadership, Hong Kong’s PLA soldiers have become more visible — during the 2019 protests they cleared debris following a clash between demonstrators and police, as well as holding frequent drills simulating crowd control and anti-terrorism operations.

China’s leadership has dismissed the city’s huge democracy rallies, portraying the movement as “local terrorism” and separatism, rhetoric similar to that used for Xinjiang.

Dozens of prominent democracy campaigners are in jail on national security charges.

Source: Voice of America

Yangon (AFP) – A Myanmar junta court on Monday convicted Aung San Suu Kyi of three criminal charges, sentencing her to four years in prison in the latest in a slew of cases against the ousted civilian leader.

The Nobel laureate has been detained since February 1 when her government was forced out in an early morning coup, ending Myanmar’s short-lived experiment with democracy.

The generals’ power grab triggered widespread dissent, which security forces sought to quell with mass detentions and bloody crackdowns in which more than 1,400 civilians have been killed, according to a local monitoring group.

A source with knowledge of the case told AFP the 76-year-old was found guilty of two charges related to illegally importing and owning walkie-talkies and one of breaking coronavirus rules.

Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun confirmed the verdicts and sentences and told AFP Suu Kyi would remain under house arrest while other cases against her proceed.

The walkie-talkie charges stem from when soldiers raided her house on the day of the coup, allegedly discovering the contraband equipment.

Monday’s sentence adds to the penalties the court handed down in December when she was jailed for four years for incitement and breaching Covid-19 rules while campaigning.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cut the sentence to two years and said she could serve her term under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw.

– ‘Fear tactic’ –

December’s ruling drew international condemnation, and the Myanmar public reverted to old protesting tactics of banging pots and pans in a show of anger.

Ahead of the verdict, Manny Maung, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said further convictions would deepen nationwide discontent.

“The announcement of her last conviction resulted in one of the highest days of social media interactions from inside Myanmar, and deeply angered the public,” she told AFP.

“The military is calculating this (the cases) as a fear tactic but it only serves to direct more anger from the public.”

Journalists have been barred from attending hearings, and Suu Kyi’s lawyers have been muzzled from speaking to the media.

Under a previous junta regime, Suu Kyi spent long spells under house arrest in her family mansion in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

Today, she is confined to an undisclosed location in the capital, with her link to the outside world limited to brief pre-trial meetings with her lawyers.

Besides Monday’s cases, she is also facing multiple counts of corruption — each of which is punishable by 15 years in jail — and of violating the official secrets act.

In November, she and 15 other officials, including Myanmar’s president Win Myint, were also charged with alleged electoral fraud during the 2020 polls.

Her National League for Democracy party had swept the elections in a landslide, trouncing a military-aligned party by a wider margin than the previous 2015 election.

Since the coup, many of her political allies have been arrested, with one chief minister sentenced to 75 years in jail. Others are in hiding.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

WASHINGTON — U.S. cybersecurity officials are still sounding an alarm about the so-called Log4j software vulnerability more than a month after it was first discovered, warning some criminals and nation state adversaries may be waiting to make use of their newfound access to critical systems.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said Monday that the vulnerability, also known as Log4shell, has been subject to widespread exploitation by criminals over the past several weeks, but that more serious and damaging attacking could still be in the works.

“We do expect Log4Shell to be used in intrusions well into the future,” CISA Director Jen Easterly told reporters during a phone briefing, adding, “at this time we have not seen the use of Log4shell resulting in significant intrusions.”

“This may be the case because sophisticated adversaries have already used this vulnerability to exploit targets and are just waiting to leverage their new access until network defenders are on a lower alert,” she said.

The vulnerability in the open-source software produced by the U.S.-based Apache Software Foundation, was first discovered in late November by the Chinese tech giant Alibaba. The first warnings to the public went out in early December.

Cybersecurity officials and experts initially described the flaw in the software as perhaps the worst vulnerability ever discovered, noting the software’s widespread use – in at least 2,800 products used by both private companies and governments around the world.

CISA on Monday said the vulnerability has impacted hundreds of millions of devices around the world, with many software vendors racing to issue security patches to their customers.

So far, U.S. agencies appear to be unscathed.

“We, at this point, are not seeing any confirmed compromises of federal agencies across the broader country, including critical infrastructure,” CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein told reporters.

But he cautioned the danger has not yet passed despite the lack of destructive attacks by sophisticated hacking groups and foreign adversaries.

“It is certainly possible that that may change, that adversaries may be utilizing this vulnerability to gain persistent access that they could use in the future, which is why we are so focused on remediating the vulnerability across the country and ensuring that we are detecting any intrusions if and when they arise,” he said.

Yet there are reports that other countries have already been targeted by cyber actors seeking to exploit the software vulnerability.

Belgium’s Ministry of Defense said last month that some of its computer systems went down last month following an attack, in which the Log4j vulnerability was believed to be exploited.

And some security experts warn other countries, including China, Iran, North Korea and Turkey, have sought to exploit Log4j.

“This activity ranges from experimentation during development, integration of the vulnerabilities to in-the-wild payload deployment, and exploitation against targets to achieve the actor’s objectives,” Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center wrote in a blog post last week.

In particular, Microsoft said the Iran cyber threat actor known as Phosphorus, known for launching ransomware attacks, has already modified the Log4j vulnerability for use in attacks, while the Chinese group known as Hafnium has also used it for some targeting activities.

The private cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike separately assessed that a Chinese-based group called Aquatic Panda sought to use the Log4j vulnerability to target an unnamed academic institution.

CISA on Monday said it could not independently confirm such reports, and further said it had yet to discover any ransomware attacks in which the attackers used the Log4j vulnerability to penetrate the victim’s systems.

CISA’s director said one reason could be that “there may be a lag between when this vulnerability is being used and when it is being actively deployed.”

Easterly also warned about information that U.S. officials are unable to see due to the failure of Congress to pass legislation that would require private companies to report cyberattacks – something the White House and many lawmakers have been advocating for some time.

“We are concerned that threat actors are going to start taking advantage of this vulnerability and having impacts in particular on critical infrastructure, and because there is no legislation in place, we will likely not know about it,” she said.

Source: Voice of America