S'porean on Interpol list held in Batam
PUBLISHED ONOctober 26, 2014 10:00 PMByZakir Hussain
A Singaporean wanted by the United States for allegedly breaching a US trade embargo against Iran - and whose extradition to the US was rejected by a Singapore court two years ago - has been detained by Indonesian police in Batam.
Lim Yong Nam, 40, was arrested at the Batam Centre ferry terminal when he sought to enter Indonesia on Thursday morning after getting off a ferry from Singapore. Indonesian National Police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told The Straits Times that Lim's name was found on an Interpol notice.
"He is currently being processed by the Riau Islands police in Batam," Mr Boy said yesterday evening.
Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it was "rendering consular assistance to the Singaporean involved".
Lim, along with three other Singaporeans and an Iranian national, was indicted by the US Department of Justice in 2011 for taking electronics components from the US to be illegally exported to Iran, rather than to their stated final destination of Singapore.
Lim was accused of acquiring 6,000 radio frequency modules for export to Iran together with Ms Wong Yuh Lan, an agent of another electronics company.
The US had sought his extradition, but Singapore's High Court in 2012 allowed Lim's appeal, together with that of Ms Wong, as it found that the wrongdoing he was accused of was not an offence in Singapore.
The other two Singaporeans were extradicted and sentenced by a US court last year.
This article was first published on October 25, 2014.
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