Former PetroSaudi Executive To Appeal Against Jail Term: Reports

SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Former Petrosaudi executive Xavier Andre Justo, the Swiss national held in a Bangkok jail on a blackmail conviction - and embroiled in a financial scandal plans to appeal against his three-year jail term, reports The Straits Times (ST). "I wasn't expecting three years," he said. Justo was sentenced on Aug 17, but had expected his cooperation with police and a full confession to draw a lighter sentence, he was quoted as saying to the local newspaper. He has until Sept 17 to file an appeal. In the interim, he is looking for a new Thai lawyer, he said from Bangkok's Klong Prem remand prison where he is serving his sentence. His Swiss lawyer, Marc Henzelin was present at the interview. Justo lashed out at references to him as a "whistle-blower" who sold data he stole from his former employer PetroSaudi, which contained details of a deal between the Saudi energy firm and Malaysia's troubled state investment firm 1MDB. "I am not a whistle-blower. It would be easy to be seen in that image, but I am not. They (the buyers) had a political agenda that I didn't know (about). I had no idea what was in those files. I didn't know they were trying to bring down a government. I was stupid," he claimed. Justo, who had quit PetroSaudi in 2011, demanded 2.5 million Swiss francs (S$3.7 million) from PetroSaudi's chief executive in 2013 for not divulging information he held on the company. The firm had paid him off once before and refused to pay him again, instead filing a complaint with the Thai police in May this year. In June, he was arrested at his plush home on the Thai resort island of Koh Samui, ST reported. --BERNAMA