A member of the security forces of Syria’s new authorities walks in the compound of the Fourth Division’s Security Bureau on the outskirts of Damascus on December 21, 2024. © Bakr Alkasem / AFP Investigation by Rouba El Housseini . Additional reporting by Bakr Alkasem and Maher al-Mounes. From a Bond villain lair in the rugged heights overlooking Damascus, the all-seeing eye of a notorious Syrian military unit gazed down on a city it bled dry. Many of the bases of the elite Fourth Division formerly run by toppled president Bashar al-Assad’s feared younger brother Maher now lie looted. But papers left strewn behind reveal how the man they called “The Master” and his cronies wallowed in immense wealth while some of their foot soldiers struggled to feed their families
Tag Archives: Corruption
Mar
A leading Malaysian reporter caught in a hotel raid allegedly accepting bribes to drop an investigation into a migrant-trafficking syndicate at Kuala Lumpur International Airport has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Malaysia has seen trafficking syndicates and corruption linked to its labour demands for migrant workers, with its main airport often in the spotlight of scandals, including last year when thousands of Bangladeshi migrants arriving on fake job offers were forced into illegal work and overstay. B. Nantha Kumar, 42, a senior reporter at prominent local online outlet Malaysiakini, was arrested on February 28 at a hotel in Shah Alam by officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on suspicion of soliciting and accepting a 20,000 ringgit (US$4,500) bribe from alleged traffickers in return for taking down
Feb
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 12 – A Nairobi Anti-Corruption Court is expected to deliver a judgment on Wednesday in a graft case involving former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu. In August 2024, Waititu, his spouse Susan Wangari Ndungu, Luka Mwangi Wahinya, Charles Chege Mbuthia, Beth Wangeci Mburu, Testimony Enterprises Limited, Saika Two Estate Developers Limited, and Bienvenue Delta Hotel were charged with the irregular awarding of road tenders worth Sh588 million in Kiambu County in February 2018. “The Chief Magistrate, Thomas Nzioki, issued a summons against Waititu today after he failed to appear in court. He directed that Waititu appear physically in court on Wednesday, 12th February 2025, at 9:30 a.m. when the judgment will be delivered,” read a post from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). The accused
![South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol attends his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 21, 2025 [Kim Hong-Ji/Pool via AFP]](https://esbecgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/South-Koreas-anti-graft-agency-recommends-insurrection-charges-for-Yoon.jpg)
Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials says president sought to ‘disrupt the constitutional order’. South Korea’s anticorruption agency has recommended that President Yoon Suk-yeol be charged with insurrection and abuse of power following a probe into the impeached leader’s short-lived martial law declaration. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said on Thursday that it requested prosecutors to file the charges after finding that Yoon had suspended civil rule with “the intent to exclude state authority or disrupt the constitutional order”. Following the CIO’s transfer of the case, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office will have 11 days to decide whether to charge Yoon and send him to trial. Yoon, who has been suspended from his duties since a December 14 impeachment vote by the National Assembly, was arrested
NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 21-President William Ruto has pledged a vigorous and uncompromising fight against corruption, urging independent institutions responsible for combating graft to intensify their efforts. Speaking on Thursday during the State of the Nation Address, President Ruto emphasized plans to foster collaboration across various arms of government, particularly the Judiciary and Parliament, to improve integrity and efficiency through digitization and automation. “This fight against corruption is one of the most difficult tasks I undertake, and I am determined to see it through. Let this serve as a warning to all: the institutions charged with this responsibility must step up their efforts,” the President declared. He warned lawmakers that corruption continues to undermine social justice, sustainable development, national security, and the success of his Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, which will