Rio Tinto lawyer held in Mongolia in for more questioning
MONGOLIAN anti-corruption investigators were last night interrogating trapped Australian lawyer Sarah Armstrong for the second time over alleged misdeeds by her Rio Tinto-owned employer, a week after she was subjected to a 10-hour grilling.
A week after authorities stopped her from boarding a plane from Mongolia to Hong Kong, Ms Armstrong, 32, sent a text message from Ulaanbaatar to her sister and a friend, Luke Dean, at 3.15pm (AEDT) yesterday that said she was about to be questioned over her work with SouthGobi Resources.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Bob Carr said last night that Australian consul-general David Lawson had accompanied Ms Armstrong and her lawyer to the interrogation, adding the government hoped to learn why she had been stopped from leaving Mongolia.
The interrogation had previously been scheduled to take place later today.
"She's in interrogation at the moment. They've got her now," her mother, Yvonne Armstrong, toldThe Weekend Australian from the family home in Rosebery, Tasmania, last night.
"She said to Luke that she'll contact us after. Last time, she said, the questioning went for 10 hours."
Mr Dean said Ms Armstrong, SouthGobi's legal counsel, "went off the radar" after sending the text message.
"We'll be waiting by the phone to find out what's going on," said Mr Dean, who planned to travel to Mongolia on Wednesday.
As revealed by The Australian this week, Ms Armstrong and another executive, US citizen Justin Kapla, were the only company executives in Mongolia when they were detained, with SouthGobi and Rio aware such a situation could occur.
Mongolian media has reported she would be questioned by the Independent Authority Against Corruption regarding the possible solicitation of bribery between SouthGobi and D. Batkhuyag, the former chairman of Mongolia's Mineral Resources Authority.
The report suggests that SouthGobi is being investigated for avoiding taxes to the tune of 150 billion tugrik ($104 million), and for the awarding of licences.
The Mongolian embassy in Canberra has for two days refused to respond to questions about what laws were being used to prevent Ms Armstrong from leaving the country and the nature of the investigation, despite repeated calls and emails.
On May 8, about a dozen agents from Mongolia's anti-corruption agency raided SouthGobi's office in Ulaanbaatar. It was investigating the group's operating company, SouthGobi Sands, in connection with "licence speculation".
A week after authorities stopped her from boarding a plane from Mongolia to Hong Kong, Ms Armstrong, 32, sent a text message from Ulaanbaatar to her sister and a friend, Luke Dean, at 3.15pm (AEDT) yesterday that said she was about to be questioned over her work with SouthGobi Resources.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Bob Carr said last night that Australian consul-general David Lawson had accompanied Ms Armstrong and her lawyer to the interrogation, adding the government hoped to learn why she had been stopped from leaving Mongolia.
The interrogation had previously been scheduled to take place later today.
"She's in interrogation at the moment. They've got her now," her mother, Yvonne Armstrong, toldThe Weekend Australian from the family home in Rosebery, Tasmania, last night.
"She said to Luke that she'll contact us after. Last time, she said, the questioning went for 10 hours."
Mr Dean said Ms Armstrong, SouthGobi's legal counsel, "went off the radar" after sending the text message.
"We'll be waiting by the phone to find out what's going on," said Mr Dean, who planned to travel to Mongolia on Wednesday.
As revealed by The Australian this week, Ms Armstrong and another executive, US citizen Justin Kapla, were the only company executives in Mongolia when they were detained, with SouthGobi and Rio aware such a situation could occur.
Mongolian media has reported she would be questioned by the Independent Authority Against Corruption regarding the possible solicitation of bribery between SouthGobi and D. Batkhuyag, the former chairman of Mongolia's Mineral Resources Authority.
The report suggests that SouthGobi is being investigated for avoiding taxes to the tune of 150 billion tugrik ($104 million), and for the awarding of licences.
The Mongolian embassy in Canberra has for two days refused to respond to questions about what laws were being used to prevent Ms Armstrong from leaving the country and the nature of the investigation, despite repeated calls and emails.
On May 8, about a dozen agents from Mongolia's anti-corruption agency raided SouthGobi's office in Ulaanbaatar. It was investigating the group's operating company, SouthGobi Sands, in connection with "licence speculation".
Comments
Post a Comment