FOREIGN exchange dealer Michael Lam Yih-jiun was jailed for six weeks yesterday for failing to testify against tycoon Albert Yeung Sau-shing for alleged criminal intimidation and false imprisonment.
Magistrate Paul Kelly said the custodial penalty should serve as a warning that witnesses had to do their duty and give evidence.
At the time of the trial, Lam, 31, said he did not want to testify at the trial in May because he was 'very frightened'.
And, breaking his silence yesterday, he compared his fear in the witness box to the feelings of a rape victim testifying before a jury.
'I was really frightened. How could you expect a victim in a rape case to give evidence when she felt scared?' he said. Lam is the prime witness in a separate case to be heard in March next year in which his former client, Sze Kung-yee, is charged with attempting to pervert the course of public justice.
He intends to go ahead with his evidence in that trial. 'I don't want to be sent to prison again,' he said.
Mr Kelly, who was also in charge of the tycoon's trial in May, released Lam on $50,000 bail pending an appeal against conviction and sentence.