Cultural Affairs VP to be retried, TSI orders

The IC headquarters at Tap Seac Square

The trial of former Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) vice president Chan Chak Seng will be reopened and repeated as the Court of Second Instance (TSI) have ruled in favor of an appeal. The appeal was requested by the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) and is in relation to the previous decision of the Court of First Instance (TJB). TJB judged Chan Chak Seng to be innocent of the charges of abuse of power and breach of confidentiality in the case that involved the public tender for maintenance services at Macau’s Central Library.
In the ruling of the TSI it is noted that the re-trial will be judged by a collective court. The repetition of the trial is, as mentioned in the appeal by the MP, brought on by “notorious mistakes” in analyzing the case evidence as well as errors in the interpretation of the law.

To recall, the case goes back to 2008 when Chan was accused of helping a direct family member to obtain a contract for several maintenance services in the public venue, making use of his privileged position to share classified information on the tender.

The case reached the courts in 2016 but at that time the TJB ruled for the acquittal of the defendant from most of the accusations, convicting him only on two charges of false declarations of his assets report in 2008 and 2010. He was told to pay a fine amounting to MOP420,000.

In the statement from the TSI summarizing their ruling, it was highlighted that the TJB “performed mistakes” in their assessment. RM