The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has upheld the appeal of the Public Prosecution Office (MP) and ordered the retrial of the trial involving several defendants connected to the former convicted Public Prosecutor-general, Ho Chio Meng, newspaper Hoje Macau reported.
The Court of First Instance (TJB) will now go over most of the facts and evidence included in the high profile corruption case that ended with Ho being handed a 21-year prison sentence in 2017 for 1,091 crimes.
The acquittals of António Lai Kin Ian, former head of Ho Chio Meng’s Office, Chan Ka Fai, former assistant to the MP, and Alex Lam Hou Un, an employee of the companies connected to Ho will now be nullified.
The cases of Ho Chio Shun, brother of Ho Chio Meng, who had been sentenced to 13 years in prison, and Lei Kuan Pun, sentenced to 12 years in prison, will also be re-evaluated, with the appeals filed by businessman Wong Kuok Wai – sentenced to 14 years in prison for 1,147 crimes, including criminal association and aggravated money laundering – and defendant Mak Im Tai, rejected, with their handed sentences subject to changes.
The only defendants who will not have their cases reopened are Chao Sio Fun, Ho’s wife, and Wang Xiandi, the alleged mistress of the former prosecutor.
Chao had been sentenced to 2 years in prison, with a suspended sentence, for two counts of the inaccuracy of tax returns and one offence of unjustified enrichment, while Wang has not filed any appeal for her effective six-year prison sentence for high-value fraud crimes.
