The family of a Hong Kong man accused of cheating a mainland vice-mayor out of more than 1.5 million yuan in a card game appealed to the special administrative region's government for help yesterday.
They said Ng Kwong-ming, 42, was paralysed after being beaten into making a confession.
Ng, fellow Hong Kong resident Wang Yuen-chuen, 52, and mainlander Luo Qi, 42, went on trial in Guangdong in March accused of cheating Shaoguan vice-mayor Peng Yun out of the cash in Macau last April. The three, who all pleaded not guilty to fraud charges and are awaiting the verdict, were arrested in May and June.
They accused Mr Peng of abusing his position to take revenge. The vice-mayor had alleged the three men and their associates lured him to Macau on the pretext of negotiating an investment deal. He claimed he was conned into playing a card game after being drugged.
He said he subsequently lost more than 1.59 million yuan to Ng and reported the case to Shaoguan police a few days after his return.
At a media conference in Hong Kong yesterday, Ng's wife, Han Jinxia, said the three men and four mainlanders who were also arrested in connection with the case had been beaten and forced to sign letters of confession. Ms Han said her husband suffered the worst torture and was paralysed from the waist down four months after his arrest in Shenzhen last June.