China - Three public officials were each sentenced to 20 months in jail for illegally wiretapping a county Communist Party chief of central China's Hunan Province, according to a local court ruling on Tuesday.
Li Yi, an official with the supervision office of the Mayang Miao Autonomous County Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Yang Fan, a Mayang court officer and Liu Yang, a police officer, were guilty of illegal wiretapping and secretly filming a county Party chief, according to the ruling of the district people's court of Hecheng, Huaihua City, which administers Mayang County.
They were guilty of placing hidden cameras in the office of Hu Jiawu, secretary of the CPC Mayang Miao Autonomous County Committee, spying on Hu and storing video footage on a removable disk between March 13 and Oct. 2 in 2012. They used the footage to try and blackmail Hu for promotion, according to the ruling. (more)
KUALA LUMPUR - The two men, who allegedly spied on the home of MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong (Deputy Minister of Education Malaysia) using a hexacopter, claimed that they were only testing the machine and not spying...
Both men have denied that they are members of a political party...
Dr Wee, when contacted, said the excuses given by the two men were ridiculous and urged police to investigate the matter further.
“Why would a photographer from Kluang come all the way to Cheras to take aerial photographs of my housing area and test the machine?” he said, adding that the footage in the camera showed it to be zooming in on only one or two houses.
He urged the authorities to push for more stringent rules and regulations on the use of such devices.
It was reported that the remote-controlled hexacopter, which had been allegedly spying on his bungalow in Bukit Tiara, Cheras on Aug 8, had fallen on the roof of the balcony of Dr Wee’s neighbour after hitting the lightning arrester. (more)
The Back Story
His neighbour’s 14-year-old son found the vehicle and informed his parents but his parents did not suspect anything amiss and told him to just throw it away.
However, the boy removed a chip attached to a tiny video camera from the vehicle and, together with his 15-year-old sister, played it on the computer. They made the shocking discovery and the family quickly informed Dr Wee.
Dr Wee collected the craft from his neighbor only on Thursday.
Dr Wee, who showed five short video clips extracted from the chip and recorded on Aug 5, said the hexacopter was aimed in the direction of his house and his neighbour’s.
The video clip showed two men handling the hexacopter in its initial clip (Darwin Award!). In another, the camera screen paused when a security guard was going on his patrolling rounds and resumed when the guard moved away. (more)
China - Three public officers, who allegedly placed hidden cameras in a Party chief's office and then tried to blackmail him, have been held for illegal wiretapping and photographing in Huaihua City in central China's Hunan Province...
Prosecutors said the trio plotted to secretly videotape violations by Hu Jiawu, the local Party chief, and blackmail him for promotions, when they dined in early February 2012. They installed spy gadgets on a water dispenser, replacing the previous dispenser in Hu's office. Between March and October 2012, Li illegally monitored Hu and stored the footages in a removable disk, Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.
Li and Yang again sneaked into Hu's office during the National Day holidays in 2012 and returned the original water dispenser. After Li edited the video, he showed it to Hu on October 17 and threatened to expose him if he did not promote them. (more)
Don't think this couldn't happen to you. This is one reason why periodic inspections for electronic surveillance devices (known as TSCM) are a standard business practice.
