Lawyer Leong Weng Pun, who has been representing the former leader of the demised junket company Suncity Group, Alvin Chau, in the case currently on trial in the Court of First Instance (TJB), has been replaced by Manuel Leong Hon Man, the Times has learned from several sources.
It is not presently clear the reasons for the replacement of Leong, who was already representing the lawyer, Kuong Kuok On, who has officially taken Chau’s defense in the case at the start.
The case includes a total of 21 defendants, including the junket mogul. It has resumed this week with a hearing involving several witnesses.
Chau is currently defending the charges against him, which include the founding and leadership of a criminal organization as well as illegal gambling and money laundering.
The change in lawyers took place on the return to trial from the judiciary holiday break.
Chau’s new representative is a practice colleague of another lawyer on the case, Maria Inês Gomes, who represents Philip Wong, the former chief financial officer of Suncity Group.
Sources told the Times that the replacement of Leong Weng Pun might be linked to the way in which presiding Judge Lou Heng Ha accused the previous defense lawyers of not respecting the court’s decision to limit access to the courtroom. This decision was made due to a lack of space and the high number of defendants and defense lawyers.
At the start of the trial, the court decided that only one lawyer per defendant could be in the courtroom in addition to the assistant lawyers who represent the gaming concessionaires.
At the start of Tuesday’s session, Judge Lou noted a letter from the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM) complaining about the lack of space in the courtroom.
The judge once again criticized the lawyers for complaining about the lack of space for the AAM, accusing them of disrespecting the rules by showing up at the courtroom and bringing together several assistants, adding that they were not following the government and the courts’ guidelines on pandemic prevention and control measures.
At that time, and according to TDM, the assistant lawyer representing SJM in the case, Álvaro Rodrigues, which is also a member of the board of directors of the AAM, assured the judge that none of the lawyers had submitted any formal complaint to the association on the case, but that the letter was from the association itself.
The topic was addressed by the president of the AAM, Jorge Neto Valente, at the opening of the judiciary year in his speech.
“It is not just about the appearance of the room – the smallness of the facilities – which could well have led the court to hold the trial in a space worthy of a public building with the appropriate size for the number of participants,” but the fact that the restrictions in force are ultimately causing a “limitation on the rights of the defense and the defendants, and that is not acceptable,” Valente said.
In Tuesday’s court session, the lawyer of the 13th defendant, Fong Kin Fao, joined the list of lawyers whom the judge threatened to prevent from speaking in court, which already included the lawyer, Pedro Leal.
Judge Lou was not happy with Fong’s questions to a witness on the stand and threatened him with censure.
