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Back in Hong Kong after serving US prison term for bribery, a ‘very tired’ Patrick Ho begins quarantine after testing negative for Covid-19
- The 70-year-old former Home Affairs minister was swiftly ushered into a waiting sedan outside AsiaWorld-Expo after testing negative for Covid-19
- A US jury found him guilty in December 2018 of offering US$2.9 million in bribes to secure oil rights for a Chinese firm in Chad and Uganda
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Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping may have walked free from a New York jail, but the ex-official, who emerged looking noticeably slimmer, still faces one key step before regaining his full freedom after returning home on Wednesday: quarantine.
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After spending seven hours in a testing centre near the Hong Kong International Airport, the 70-year-old was declared negative for Covid-19. As with any other returning resident, he will now observe 14-day’s isolation at home.
The ophthalmologist turned politician, who last year was sentenced to 36 months in jail and fined US$400,000 (HK$3.1 million) for his role in a multimillion-dollar bribery plot involving top African leaders, was deported from the United States after his release.
He had been in custody since November 2017 after being denied bail following his arrest.
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Dressed in an oversized navy shirt, Ho left the AsiaWorld-Expo testing facility in a chauffeur-driven silver Honda sedan after receiving his results. Five people escorted Ho to the car, where two others awaited him. One covered him with an umbrella as he swiftly ducked into the vehicle, which then headed towards his flat on Garden Road in Central.
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