Mainland Chinese businessman who escaped Hong Kong police through hospital toilet ceiling has jail sentence reduced to care for epileptic son
- Leon Li Lihua, 34, sparked a 36-hour manhunt after being on the run since 2015 for another offence
- Court reduces punishment by one-third to 12 months
Leon Li Lihua, 34, was originally jailed for 18 months by the Eastern Court in February after pleading guilty to a host of charges, including using a forged identity card and absconding.
But on Tuesday, the Court of First Instance reduced the punishment to 12 months after it ruled that the sentencing judge had failed show compassion for Li’s son – who was born with infantile spasms and has suffered from a potentially lethal form of epilepsy.
“One-third [of sufferers] do not live beyond one to three years old,” said the father in a shaky voice, before he teared up.
One-third [of sufferers] do not live beyond one to three years old.
Mr Justice Poon Siu-tung agreed with the Cambridge-educated businessman, who lodged the appeal himself from the dock without a barrister. The judge will hand down a detailed judgment at a later date.
Li, the second-biggest shareholder of China Environmental Technology Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed company, was arrested in November, upon his return to the city, for fleeing an earlier trial over his use of a fake identity card at the US consulate in 2015.
Soon after his arrest, he was taken to Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, where he made a run for it. After sparking a frantic 36-hour search in the city, he was found at the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View in Wan Chai.
Li pleaded guilty at the lower court earlier this year to using a forged identity card and failing to surrender to custody, charges that were related to the earlier trial. In the most recent case, he pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody and resisting a police officer.
On Tuesday, he focused primarily on his use of a fake ID card, saying that the magistrate at the time made a mistake by concluding that he presented the fake ID card to scam a US entry visa.
He argued against the seriousness of his crime, saying he relied solely on his mainland Chinese passport while submitting the application at the time.
He said he offered the ID card only when a staff member spotted it in his wallet while he was searching for his business card.
“It happened in split seconds,” he said, rejecting the magistrate’s ruling that he used it deliberately to mislead staff.
He was at the US consulate because he wanted to take his son to America for treatment, his lawyer told the court earlier. He absconded his 2015 trial because his son was admitted to hospital in Beijing.
Even so, the magistrate said Li should have foreseen the consequence of not being able to tend to his children when he committed the crime.
