bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Fox Yi Hu

The five men convicted of the execution-style murder five years ago of businessman Harry Lam Hon-lit in Central's Luk Yu Tea House  are awaiting the outcome of their appeals following two days of hearings earlier this month.
Among them, Hong Kong actor turned businessman Yeung Ka-on,   the only one of the five to plead not guilty to murder when the case was tried last year, is appealing against his conviction and sentence. The others are appealing against their sentence.
Judges from the Guangdong Higher People's Court  heard the appeals two weeks ago in  Shenzhen of Yeung, mainland hit man Yang Wen,  Hong Kong triad boss Lau Yat-yin,  former Macau casino manager Tse Bing  and former PLA soldier Zhang Zhixin.
Hearings were conducted on December 5 and 6 at the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court,  but no journalists were present and no reports of the proceedings were published. The judges did not say when they would deliver their verdicts.
Journalists were also barred from the trial of the five, and three others, which was conducted amid high security in October last year.
The five men were sentenced in July,  with Yang receiving the death sentence, Zhang jailed for 13 years and the three others jailed for life. They filed appeals soon after being sentenced.
'The retrial centred on the grounds for the appeals. Judges checked facts and the prosecution evidence,' a judicial source said.
Lam, 54, was shot at point-blank range as he was having  breakfast in the tea house  on November 30, 2002.
Hong Kong residents Ho Ho-fu  and Tsui Ming-yeung,  who worked for Yeung and who were acquitted at the first trial, were witnesses at the appeal hearing, but court officials could not trace Wu Weiwu,  who was sentenced to three years' jail in July for arranging a hideout for Yang but was freed, having spent more than three years in custody.
Sources said the   appeal was heard in Shenzhen, rather than at the Higher People's Court in Guangzhou, because transferring felons to the provincial capital would have been risky and expensive.
The appeal judges' verdicts are final, but if they uphold Yang's death sentence the decision will be reviewed by the mainland's top court.
Yeung  was found to have masterminded the killing of Lam, a director of Digger Holdings  and an investor in Shenzhen's Mission Hills Golf Club.



Central tea-house murderers await outcome of their appeals