Kidnap gang 'told to split up for good after sharing ransom'
'Big Spender' Cheung Tze-keung told his gang never to meet again after sharing the multimillion dollar ransom from two kidnapped business tycoons, a relative of a defendant said.
Cheung told the court he took part in the kidnappings and discussions over the ransoms, Chu Yuk-shing, a brother of a Hong Kong defendant, said. Mr Chu said Cheung had looked confident during questioning by the adjudicators and had answered in a joking way.
'[Cheung] told the court that after the kidnapping he told his gang members to 'swim across the river like a Chinese bullfrog',' recalled Mr Chu, who has been allowed inside the closed courtroom.
The adjudicator asked what it meant and Cheung replied it meant that they should flee on their own and not meet again.
Cheung had confessed to having kidnapped two Hong Kong property developers, Walter Kwok Ping-sheung and Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, Mr Chu said.
There were nine people involved in the kidnappings, Mr Chu said.
But Cheung refused to admit he had purchased or smuggled ammunition into Hong Kong, claiming he had not violated Chinese law since that act was not committed on the mainland.
A defence lawyer argued in court that the export of firearms from the mainland had to be approved by officials, Mr Chu said.
If the defendants managed to smuggle the firearms out, it meant there was also a problem with law enforcement parties on the mainland, he added.
Meanwhile, Cheung's lawyer Tong Jianhua discounted reports that Cheung had dropped him.
He said he was still Cheung's lawyer and would represent him in court in the days to come.
