Hong Kong tycoons' corruption trial in Macau adjourned due to illness
Hong Kong businessman Joseph Lau is too ill to attend hearing, his lawyer tells Macau court
The corruption trial of Hong Kong tycoons Joseph Lau Luen-hung and Steven Lo Kit-sing in Macau has again been adjourned, this time because one of the defendants is sick.
They are charged with offering a HK$20 million bribe to Macau's former public works chief Ao Man-long in 2005. Ao was jailed for 29 years in May.
The case, originally scheduled for September, had been adjourned until yesterday because the presiding judge Alice Costa was sick. She was replaced by Mario Augusto Silvestre.
At Macau's Court of First Instance yesterday, Lau's lawyer Leong Weng-pun submitted a letter from his doctor, certifying that he was suffering from a chronic disease and was unable to attend the hearing.
But the application for absence was opposed by Deputy Prosecutor-General Paulo Chan, who said Lau had been seen in the media and appeared to be well. "We learned that Lau's health was good from the media. He can still go for yum cha and eat outside. The Public Prosecution Office considers it a deliberate delay. He is absent without a reasonable explanation," he said.
Leong said his client's health was unpredictable. Being able to eat out previously did not mean he could eat out now, he said.