But the case and testimony presented by prosecutor Acting Attorney General Jack Jorbon and the defense described by Chief Public Defender Russell Kun are so divergent they sound like different incidents.
Two Chinese businessmen have been charged with attempted murder and a slew of assault charges for the assault of an off-duty Majuro Atoll Local Government police officer in February.
Jorbon filed attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy, attempted assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery charges against Huang Peishu and Liang Shoujie.
But Kun said Friday his client, Huang, was bashed by a group of Marshall Islanders, sustaining significantly worse injury than the out-of-uniform policeman presented as the victim by the national government.
Passports
Following the Marshall Islands government’s sale of more than 2,000 passports in the mid-1990s, several hundred Marshall Islands passport-carrying Chinese moved to Majuro and started businesses. A recent business survey published in the Marshall Islands Journal, the weekly newspaper, showed that natural born Marshall Islanders now own fewer than half of the 146 small- and medium-sized business in the capital, Majuro.
Seventy-nine are owned by foreigners, though many hold Marshallese citizenship through passport purchases, and nearly all are either nationals from China or Taiwan.
“I’ve got nothing against foreigners coming in to do business, but Marshallese are not ready to compete at this level,” said Charles Domnick, who owns a large construction firm, a retail store, tape rental outlet, apartments and a restaurant. He predicts that the percentage of businesses owned by foreigners will continue its upward trend, with Marshallese-owned firms soon to be a small minority.
Tensions have grown, with a handful of assault cases going to court for prosecution in the past of Marshall Islanders assaulting Chinese. The case involving Huang and Liang is one of the first against Chinese nationals for assault and the highest level charges filed in this nation that averages fewer than three murders annually.
Not guilty
At a preliminary hearing on Thursday last week, the two pleaded not guilty and waived their right to a jury trial. Judge James Plasman set August 24 for a bench trial.
According to police investigators, off-duty officer Tiem Tonko said he saw a vehicle speeding on the ocean road in a heavily populated area of Majuro on February 25. A few minutes later, when it came back along the road at high speed, he put a rock in the road to stop it, he said. When the vehicle stopped and Tonko went to talk to the driver, the driver made a call on his cell phone, Tonko said.
The driver got out, picked up the rock in front of his car, and then Tonko grabbed a rock himself. Next thing, a friend of the driver showed up, and the pair came after Tonko with a rock, machete and a two foot long piece of metal, according to Tonko and other witnesses.
The policeman said he fled, pursued by two defendants. When he tripped and fell, they proceeded to assault him with the weapons causing serious injuries, the police said.
Huang and Liang are reported to have then jumped into a taxi and fled the scene, leaving their vehicle behind.
Basic facts
But Kun said there is a huge problem with the government’s evidence, starting with the basic facts of the case.
Because the standard of evidence is lower at a preliminary hearing than it is at trial, Kun said he believes prosecutors will have a hard time proving their case beyond a “reasonable doubt,” which is the standard of evidence at trial.
“Not one Marshallese has been charged with the assault on my client,” Kun said, adding that police took photos of the facial and other injuries sustained by Huang during the incident, but did not present this evidence as part of prosecution’s case.
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