Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The mystery of Shane Todd: Did US electronic engineer commit suicide – or was he murdered because he knew too many Chinese secrets?

A coroner’s inquiry that opened in Singapore on Monday may offer a final chance of resolving whether an American electronics engineer committed suicide – or was killed to stop him talking to the US authorities about his work at a Singapore institute on a sensitive research project involving a high-profile Chinese telecommunications firm.

The body of Shane Todd was found on 24 June 2012 by his girlfriend in his apartment in Singapore, hanging from a strap attached to a door. A police autopsy said his death was caused by asphyxiation, but his parents believe he was murdered. They said suicide notes purportedly left by their son were faked and the initial police account of the scene bore little relation to what they found when they arrived at the apartment 48 hours after his death.

Mr Todd, who was 31 when he died, had joined the Singapore government-backed Institute for Micro Electronics (IME) 18 months earlier and for the final year of his life worked on an IME project to develop an amplifying device, using gallium nitride (GaN), a heat-resistant material with the potential to make superconductors with many possible uses in the civilian and military fields. Mr Todd had been trained in the US on proprietary equipment that produces GaN but is restricted for export because of its potential military applications. Full story...

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