Duo not facing US trial

Singaporeans innocent of illegally exporting radio parts to Iran

SINGAPORE: Two of four Singaporeans facing extradition to the United States for supplying electronic parts found in Iraqi roadside bombs have been freed after being found innocent of violating Singapore law.

In a ruling issued late Tuesday, a Singapore judge said electronics traders Wong Yuh Lan and Lim Yong Nam had done nothing wrong when they facilitated the transfer of USmade radio components to Iran via Singapore between 2007 and 2008.

Another Singaporean judge had earlier granted a US request to extradite the four so they could be tried in a District of Columbia court for fraud.

The US charges included illegally exporting US-made radio equipment to Iran such as 6,000 radio modules and 55 antenna parts, some of which were found in bombs targeting coalition forces in Iraq.

All four filed appeals in Singapore to contest their extradition.

Judge ChooHanTeck, whoordered Wong and Lim freed, said Singapore did not have “absolute prohibitions against trade with Iran” at the time the acts were committed.

Tougher trade restrictions, including a ban on the export of radio components to Iran, were adopted by Singapore only in 2010, the judge noted.

The two could, therefore, not be extradited as there was “no reciprocal offence in Singapore” at the time.

To regard their acts as criminal “would amount to the enforcement of another country’s trade policies which differed from ours”, the judge said.

But the judge dismissed the appeals of the two other accused, Lim Kow Seng and Hia Soo Gan Benson, who faced charges that were “justiciable in Singapore” at the time the acts were committed.

The two were accused of conspiring with US citizens to export military-grade antennas from the United States without a licence.