Hong Kong lawmakers, pastor call for greater transparency, accountability after homeless man dies in jail
- The circumstances surrounding the Vietnamese man’s death were suspicious, but authorities have yet to release CCTV footage, lawmaker says
- The death has also brought the plight of the city’s homeless back into the public eye
Opposition lawmakers and a local pastor are calling for greater transparency and accountability in the management of Hong Kong’s prisons after a Vietnamese street sleeper who accused police of abuse died in jail with a pair of trousers around his neck.
Lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun, for the social welfare sector, said the death of Le Van Muoi was suspicious, and urged the Correctional Services Department to release relevant CCTV footage, questioning why the 54-year-old even had a pair of trousers given that he was supposed to be in summer attire.
“Where did they come from? That’s what we want to know,” he said.
Le, who had been camping out at the Tung Chau Street Park in Sham Shui Po for almost two decades, was remanded into custody in September while awaiting trial on drug charges, according to the department.
Earlier in the year, in February, he had been among a handful of street sleepers in the area who complained of rough treatment at the hands of police, including assault and property damage. As a result, nine officers were arrested on suspicion of offences ranging from criminal damage to perverting the course of justice.
According to the Correctional Services Department, officers found the 54-year-old Le unconscious in his cell with a pair of trousers wrapped around his neck on October 8. He was sent to hospital and died the following morning.
It is mandatory in Hong Kong for the Coroner's Court to launch an inquiry into all deaths in jail, a procedure the lawmakers hope will help uncover the truth, though they demanded more be done.
Shiu decried the fact that the Correctional Services Department, as of Wednesday, had not responded to his calls to release the relevant video footage despite Le’s death taking place two weeks ago. He said he had also written to the department demanding the footage be preserved on Tuesday.
He noted that the department usually kept its CCTV footage for a month, but there had been prior instances where the department found relevant footage was deleted by mistake, or the surveillance camera in question wasn’t working.
“The letter we issued to them a day ago was appropriate, so they can’t delete the footage,” Shiu said.
Another opposition lawmaker, Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, a social worker by training, pointed out the lack of an independent watchdog to scrutinise the Correctional Services Department, adding that such bodies were common overseas and should be considered in Hong Kong.
“Shiu and I have always been advocating for the need for an independent mechanism for scrutiny,” he said.
Pastor Timothy Lam Kwok-cheung, who has been helping street sleepers in Sham Shui Po, said he had known Le for more than eight years and described him as introverted but happy. Le lived in one of the city’s refugee camps in the 1990s, according to Lam, and was seen for the first time camping out in Sham Shui Po in 2000.
He said he would spend the night with the street sleepers in the area once a week, and Le would help him put out the mattresses.
“He was very willing to look out for others ,” the pastor recalled.
Lam said he had been in touch with Le’s five siblings in the northern part of Vietnam, and would deliver his ashes to them after the funeral.
Sham Shui Po district councillor Kalvin Ho Kai-ming said Le’s case had brought the plight of other street sleepers in the neighbourhood back into the public eye.
The sleepers used to take shelter in makeshift squatters’ dwellings erected on a strip of road next to the park, but the authorities have been removing them since 2017, with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department ultimately fencing them off completely.
Ho accused the government of booting the homeless out while doing nothing to help them.
“They wish they had a magic wand to make them disappear,” he said, “but they are part of society.”
A spokesman from the Correctional Services Department said the footage had been given to police for investigation. The department would also refrain from commenting on the case in light of a pending inquest into the death, he said.
The department had been arranging clinical psychiatrists and staff to screen out individuals at a high risk of self-harm and improve its facilities.
According to its website, eight people had died in custody between 2016 and last year.
