During yesterday’s ‘closing arguments’ session of the trial of Ho Chio Meng, the former Prosecutor General had a chance to speak for himself and made an emotional appeal, denying all charges against him.
Following the end of his lawyer’s closing statements at the Court of Final Appeal, and after a short period of debate between the prosecution side and his lawyer, Ho said he did not give orders to any parties in order to establish criminal groups, and that he did not receive economic benefits from any of the cases mentioned by the prosecution. Ho added that the accusations made against him did not match the truth.
The former top prosecutor was accused of various charges following an investigation led by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) and his arrest. In his appeal, he said that there were four flaws in his investigation and trial: “unfair charges, made up facts, presumption of guilt, [and] reaching a conclusion without hearing the facts.”
In accordance with previous statements made by Ho during the trial, he reiterated that he did not attempt to escape Macau on the day of his arrest.
In particular, Ho denied that his actions led to losses to the Macau government, and that he damaged the country’s image due to the way he handled the case of the city’s former Secretary for Transport and Public works, Ao Man Long.
Regarding the recovery of Ao’s overseas money, Ho said that he “does not ask for merits, but begs for innocence.” Nevertheless, Ho accused MP of having “firstly convicted him, then looked for evidence.”
The former prosecutor continued denying that he used the MP money to rent the Cheoc Van Villa, or that he used the MP’s money to rent the “teachers’ resting room”, which he is accused of having used for personal purposes.
“Deceit, loss, and improper benefits” are the three things Ho claimed to have not been guilty of engaging in or collecting.
On multiple occasions, Ho has argued that he “did not organize criminal groups, nor receive money.”
When explaining the instances when he wrongly declared his properties to the government, Ho said that “there were mistakes in the declaration of properties, but the properties were legal.”
Ho’s wife is also accused of problematic property declaration. “The mistake was on me, there was nothing related to my wife,” said Ho, adding that he dragged his family into his case.
“I did not commit crimes, did not cause MP’s loss,” said Ho, adding that he never refused to confess to or cooperate with CCAC and MP’s investigation.
“There is nothing I can admit about the criminal groups, fraud, money laundering, […] I can’t admit that, they are not true,” declared Ho, adding that he still has “a trace of hope, and belief that the court will make a fair ruling.”
“Not guilty is not equal to not having made mistakes,” Ho remarked before apologizing and bowing twice to the court.
The former prosecutor apologized for his administrative mistakes in the involved cases.
In his conclusion, Ho stated that he had contributed to the Macau SAR for 27 years, and had worked as the Prosecutor General for 15 years, never receiving any disciplinary reprimands.
The former top prosecutor cried in court while speaking about his children.
He also asked the court to issue a lenient punishment while taking into consideration his contribution to the city, his age, and his family situation.
The court will have one closed-door session on May 18.
Oriana Pun discards evidence
Yesterday, the prosecution pointed out that Ho Chio Meng is accused of having used public money from the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) to cover payments for a trip with his family, including one to northern Europe when he had been invited to attend a Public Prosecutors Conference in Denmark. Ho’s lawyer, Oriana Pun, pointed out that this case traces back to the year of 2005, and since it happened more than 10 years ago, it is beyond the regular prosecution period.
Pun argued that the court should take this fact into consideration when ruling on charges related to the northern Europe trip.
Furthermore, Pun noted that the defence had question the then-Chief Executive (CE) about the matter. The previous CE, Edmund Ho, issued a written reply, claiming that he has forgotten whether he signed an approval allowing Ho and his wife to attend the conference together.
According to Pun’s opinion, Ho did not deny that Ho’s wife was invited to attend the conference in Denmark, and as such, Ho should not be considered guilty for fraud in relation to this event.
Concerning the trip, Ho is charged with having separated payment instalments for the Denmark trip, behaviour that Pun deems, at most, as an administrative offense.
In regard to shell companies allegedly established by Ho, Pun said that the involved companies are not common shell companies because they paid taxes and social welfare, had employees, and contributed services to the contracts received from the MP.
Last Friday, Pun accused the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) of conducting a biased investigation against Ho. As she had done in previous closing arguments, Pun once again expressed her disgust towards the investigation led by the CCAC, during which the department monitored Ho’s mobile phone. Pun considered that some of the CCAC’s monitoring records cannot verify that the identity of the person in the records is Ho.
In the same session, the prosecution side said that Ho should be sentenced for 1,359 crimes because each problematic contract outsourced should be considered a single crime.
Ho is charged with fraud for these contracts.
Regarding these alleged 1,359 crimes, yesterday, Pun noted that “the services were done nicely and the works were completed.”
Pun said that if anybody was cheated, it would be Ho.
“The company lied to Ho, and the subordinate [from the MP] lied to Ho,” said Pun, according to whom, if Ho had cheated any party, he would “have cheated himself.”
In addition, the lawyer claimed that in case Ho has cheated anyone, he should not be considered to have committed fraud.
The shell companies were accused of providing poor services or simply not providing services to the MP at all.
In Pun’s words, Ho “did not know what contracts were outsourced, did not know how many companies [attended MP public tenders], did not know whether the alleged shell companies were involved, and did not know that there were sub-concessions.”
Ho is also accused of having used MP money to pay for hotels and flight tickets to non-MP employees, all of whom according to the MP, were women. Pun denied this claim, saying that there were men present as well.
Moreover, she said that it was Ho Chio Meng’s subordinate who processed the payment, not Ho. “This is not shirking the responsibilities,” clarified Pun.
Pun mentioned that it had been Ho’s subordinates who took care of the financial process, and that it could not be proved that Ho committed fraud.
“Ho did not commit fraud, did not reap benefits and did not abuse his power,” declared Pun.
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