'Triad soldier' jailed for plotting to murder witness seeks retrial

A 'triad soldier' who was jailed for 27 years for plotting to murder the star witness in an $8 billion cigarette smuggling and corruption case sought yesterday to have his conviction quashed and a retrial ordered.

Johnny Cheung Wai-ming, 43, went to the Court of Appeal after being jailed in November 1998 for conspiring in Hong Kong to murder Tommy Chui To-yan and pervert the course of justice.

Cheung was one of five people said to have been sent to Singapore in 1995 to ensure Chui, 38, never made it to the witness box. Chui was abducted from his Porsche in Singapore and suffocated. His body was dumped in the sea. The smuggling and corruption case collapsed.

Former Customs officer Henfrey Tin Sau-kwong, one of those against whom Chui had been due to testify, was sentenced to 6.5 years in jail after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice by trying to frighten Chui into revoking his statements. He has completed his term.

Mr Justice Michael Stuart-Moore said yesterday of Cheung's offences: 'The plot is in one country to kill someone in another country to prevent someone who is going to give evidence in a very serious criminal case from giving evidence. Is it possible to imagine anything more serious than that?'

His view was echoed by Mr Justice Frank Stock. 'Why is life imprisonment not appropriate?' he asked barrister Kevin Egan, who was representing Cheung. 'Why should we not take a view that your client constitutes a danger to society?'

Mr Egan argued the sentence imposed by the trial judge, Mr Justice Thomas Gall, in November 1998 was too long.