The billionaire behind the infamous Shwe Kokko advanced in Myanmar is attempting to extradite to China.
PUBLISHED: 28 Jan 2025 at 15: 41
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong said on Tuesday that Thailand has denied abusing a jailed playing billionaire who is battling extradition to China over allegations he ran illegitimate online gaming activities in Southeast Asia.
China-born She Zhijiang says he was subjected to “inhumane care” in a Thai jail, including crime that has left him able to walk, according to a text his attorneys sent to Interpol, Reuters reported last year.
On Tuesday at Government House in Bangkok, Mr. Tawee Sodsong said,” Our conduct toward him is like others ( inmates ) with regular access to lawyers.”
He claimed that there were safety devices in place to stop individuals from being abused or tortured.
The minister refrained from making any comments on the claims made by She’s attorneys in a letter to Interpol that Chinese military officials had visited the tycoon without his consent.
The betting fiend was detained in Bangkok in 2022 on an international warrant and an Interpol red see, who claims Beijing is looking into the situation against him is politically motivated. His repatriation to China was ordered by a Thai judge in 2023, but She is appealing the decision.
Mr. Tawee claimed that because he is a resident of Cambodia, the country had also requested that she be extradited. The suspect’s abduction place will be decided by the Court of Appeal, the chancellor said.
According to press studies, She is the president of Yatai International Holdings Group, which has made game investments in Cambodia, the Philippines and, most recently, developed a$ 15-billion Shwe Kokko game, leisure and hospitality advanced in Kayin condition of Myanmar, across from Tak territory in Thailand.
The evidence against him was” conclusive,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry, which claimed in a statement on Sunday that She was a Chinese national and a “key figure in online gaming and telecommunication fraud atrocities.”
Southeast Asia— particularly border areas between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia — has become a hub for telecoms and various online scam since the Covid-19 crisis, according to the United Nations, which says hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to work in con centres.
From the Thai side of the Moei River in Tak province, you can see the “scam city” of Shwe Kokko in Myawaddy Township. ( Photo: Angshu2193 via Wikimedia Commons )