Some of the suspects believed to have been involved in a prostitution ring that operated inside Hotel Lisboa
After a year behind bars, Alan Ho and others suspected of being involved in a prostitution ring that operated inside Hotel Lisboa were finally brought before the Court of First Instance (TJB) on Friday.
Ho is a nephew of Stanley Ho. At the time of the arrests he was the executive director of the Hotel Lisboa. He was joined in the “dock” by another five staff members of the same hotel where the authorities claim the network operated.
The six defendants have been accused by the Macau’s Public Prosecutors Office of criminal association and pimping and have been in remand since they were arrested in January 2015.
During the first hearing, only two of the defendants opted to answer questions posed by the lawyers, public prosecutor and the collective judges. The remaining four, including Alan Ho, remained silent during a session that was well attended by journalists.
The two defendants who decided to speak were the fourth and fifth defendants, Qiao Yan Yan and Bruce Mak, respectively the former assistant of the vice manager for “Special Markets PR” and the senior manager of the Security Department.
This first trial session was also marked at the start by a petition, interposed by Mr Alan Ho’s lawyer Neto Valente, which asked for the hearing to be conducted behind closed doors. Neto Valente based his claims on the need to prevent public pressure placing undue influence upon the judgement, claiming that “too much” information is already circulating in the press and reaching the public in a way that “convicts” his client ahead of his trial. The petition was analyzed and rejected by the judges who commenced the trial session shortly after.
Upon hearing the first allegations, Neto Valente, Alan Ho’s lawyer, denied the crimes his client was accused of, namely of establishing and leading a criminal organization that exploited prostitutes, as well as ninety counts of sexual exploitation, assuring that through the course of the trial Alan Ho will be able to prove his innocence in a prosecution that he determined to be “fragile.”
The lawyer made specific references to several hearings held during the course of the investigations and “wiretappings” done by the Judiciary Police (PJ) where, in his opinion, other defendants “clear” the former executive director.
The fourth defendant, Bruce
Mak, senior manager of the Security Department, then answered several questions in which he said he considered his activity to be merely “normal” security tasks. He stated that he had no knowledge of other people “managing” any activity of the women that were known at the hotel by the acronym YSL (“Young Single Ladies”). Mak claimed the ladies were treated as any other hotel guest.
The senior manager also explained to the court the radio communications “code system” created by him for use among security staff composed of five code numbers (1,2,3,4, and Red) which again he stated was normal procedure especially when the team members come from different backgrounds and speak different languages.
Regarding the codes, the lawyer Vitor Gomes, representing the defendant Peter Lun, expressed surprise at the fact that the accusation by the Public Prosecutors Office only referred to the existence of the “code 1” which is used to warn of the presence of police officers, dismissing the other codes.
Replying to the Public Prosecutor, Mr Mak stated that he never heard the term “working rooms” to refer to the rooms where the alleged prostitutes were offering their services but had known that the “YSL” were occupying rooms in the fifth and sixth floors of the hotel. A “special” check-in counter was managed by the second defendant Kelly Wong, assistant deputy manager for “Special Market PR,” a title that raised questions by the prosecutor. Mak said he was “unaware” of any reason for the title.
The afternoon session lead to the testimony of the fifth defendant Qiao Yan Yan, who stated that Alan Ho and Peter Lun (the second defendant on this case and former general manager) and her immediate boss, Kelly Wong had the responsibility of dealing and choosing the “YSL” that were situated in the two floors of the hotel unit.
Qiao also mentioned that it was part of her working duties to supervise and guarantee that the “girls” would not approach other hotel guests to offer their services or circulate outside the public area where they could operate freely as mentioned and remarked upon by Mak earlier in the morning.
The former assistant of Wong also admitted in court that she knew the procedures and rules well since she had been part of the group of YSL that frequented the hotel to provide sexual services.
The trial will resume with its second session scheduled for Friday, January 15.
Last year’s police operation took into custody the 6 defendants together with 96 women that were providing sexual services in the hotel that belongs to the gaming tycoon Stanley Ho and which was being managed by his nephew. The six defendants were arrested on suspicions of managing a prostitution ring.
Twenty of the women were also taken into custody suspected of illegal immigration and ten for being in the possession of fake identification documents.
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