By Bella HUANG
Hong Kong - A Chinese mainland resident, Li Guoyong, is on trial in the High Court on November 9, regarding an attempted kidnapping case happened in 2007.
This jury trial consists of 5 male and 2 female jurors. Li Guoyong was sitting at the back of the court room, guarded by two police. Throughout the whole trial, Li was deadpan and looked calm. It is unclear if his family was there.
The plaintiff attorney claimed that Li was actively involved in the abduction of Leung Ding-bong, a Hong Kong high-ranking ex-official. After the kidnapping failed, the gang leader, Chiang Sai-wah, was arrested and sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment, while Li fled back to mainland China.
According to the plaintiff attorney, it is shown in the exit and entry records that Li had not entered Hong Kong for 7 years since 2007. Although the Immigration Department had been tracking Li, they didn’t arrest him until last August due to wrong information on his birthdate.
The plaintiff attorney claimed that Li’s not showing up in Hong Kong is because of his fear of being arrested, which further supports that Li actively participated in the scheme.
“The only reasonable conclusion is that he is one of the gang,” the plaintiff attorney said.
The criminal defendant lawyer claimed that Li had proper reasons for not entering Hong Kong, by referring to the defendant’s account that he was busy taking charge of his restaurant in mainland. She also asserted that if Li was to escape the arrest, he would not come to Hong Kong even after 2014.
The plaintiff attorney also stressed on the evidence of Li’s fingerprints and palm prints. There were 43 Li’s fingerprints collected from the exhibits in total.
“If he was not a member of the gang, why would there be so many fingerprints?” said the plaintiff attorney, with his voice rising in indignation.
However, according to the criminal defendant lawyer, Li was simply a janitor for the gang. Therefore, it’s reasonable that his fingerprints were found while he did not directly participate in the kidnapping.
According to Westlaw Asia, the abduction happened in 2007, when a gang tried to kidnap the 73-year-old ex-president of Urban Council Leung Ding-bong for ransom. When Leung came out of a lift, he was tied up and put into a wooden box. After a kidnapper’s finger was bitten off by Leung, the gang fled away and Leung was later spotted by a passer-by who called the police.
Li’s trial is a criminal case heard in public, presided by Judge Poon Man-key. He was accused of conspiracy to commit forcible detention, as stated in daily causes lists provided by the Judiciary.
The hearing lasted for around two hours. Judge Poon said that it will resume at 9:30 am, November 12 in the High Court, during which the jury will be instructed to give the final judgement.
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