AAEC dismayed with court’s denial of extension appeal following language hitch
The Court of First Instance (TJB) has denied the 30-day extension request filed by the Asian American Entertainment Corp Ltd (AAEC), following the court’s decision in favor of Las Vegas Corp.
The request for extension came as the 99-page ruling was sent to AAEC representatives in Chinese, without also providing a full sentencing decision in Portuguese.
“We were not expecting such a decision. We thought the court would respect the fact that is not possible to review a 99-page Chinese judgment by a non-Chinese speaker in 10 days,” the source close to the plaintiff told the Times.
The source has taken this decision as confirmation that the AAEC is “not receiving justice as it aspired to in these court proceedings,” expressing their disappointment with the court’s decision to not provide their judgment in a language that the plaintiff’s representative is proficient in.
“The court argues that not knowing Chinese does not entail not knowing the content of the judgment. This is perplexing: one cannot understand a Chinese judgment if one does not know the language. We can’t get the court’s point. How can the court imply that one can read a judgment in a language that one does not master?” the source questioned.
“The court states the right to individual liberty in choosing the language. But fundamental rights are granted to citizens against authorities, not to authorities against citizens. Courts do not have individual rights! This argument is extraordinary,” they added.
The plaintiff is seeking a compensation claim of around MOP60 billion on the grounds that the LVS subsidiaries replaced AAEC with Galaxy Entertainment Group as their business partner at a very late stage in the public tender for the gaming licenses in Macau.
AAEC’s Marshall Hao considers that LVS’ move has caused severe damage to his company and business prospects, claiming that he is entitled to a large share of the profits earned by LVS through its Macau operations for the past two decades.
Earlier this month, it was disclosed that AAEC will lodge an appeal and will bring several matters of concern to the attention of relevant U.S. authorities.
