South Korean police yesterday made apparent headway in the manhunt for a fugitive businessman wanted over April’s ferry disaster with the capture of his wife.
Kwon Yun-ja, 72, was arrested at an apartment in the southern suburbs of Seoul following a successful ambush, Yonhap news agency said.
However, her husband, Yoo Byun-eun, 73, was not at the site.
YTN TV showed Kwon, her face covered with a dark brimmed hat, being taken into custody at the Incheon Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigators want to question her to obtain information that may lead to the capture of her husband.
Yoo is the patriarch of the family behind Chonghaejin Marine Co, which owned and operated the 6,825-tonne Sewol ferry which sank on April 16 with the loss of about 300 lives, most of them schoolchildren.
He is wanted for questioning on possible charges of embezzlement and criminal negligence, as prosecutors investigate the extent to which the Sewol disaster was caused by a lack of safety standards and regulatory violations.
Yoo has no direct stake in Chonghaejin, but his children and close aides control it through a complex web of holding companies.
Kwon was accused of diverting funds from one of Chonghaejin’s subsidiaries where she serves as the chief executive.
A reward of 500 million won (US$490,000) has been offered for information leading to the capture of Yoo and 100 million won for that of his eldest son, Yoo Dae-kyun.
Last week, thousands of police twice raided the compound of a splinter religious group in pursuit of Yoo, but to no avail. Yoo is reportedly the de facto leader of the church.
Several church followers suspected of helping Yoo evade a nationwide dragnet have also been arrested after he defied an official summons to surrender to prosecutors.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS