Ho Chio Meng’s trial postponed

The opening session of the trial of former Prosecutor General Ho Chio Meng, scheduled for this morning, was postponed last Friday.

The cause for the postponement was a request from Ho’s defense for Final Appeal Court (TUI) judge president Sam Hou Fai to be excused from the process as he was previously involved in the case during the enquiry phase, and in the audience of appreciation of the habeas corpus request that was then denied.

According to the statement issued on Friday by TUI, Ho’s defense invoked Article 32 of the Penal Code claiming that during the investigation held by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC), Sam had authorized the investigation for the assets declaration of the former Prosecutor General and his wife, and also had taken part in the ruling over the request for a habeas corpus based on unlawful imprisonment in early March this year.

The court must now wait for a decision on the defense’s request before they are able to determine a new date for the first session of this trial.

Legal procedures dictate that there is a 10-day period for Sam to reply, after which his response will be analyzed by the judge in charge of the case in an unspecified time period.

Ho  was detained in preventive custody for over nine months after he was arrested in a case involving alleged illicit business transactions amounting to MOP167 million, between 2004 and 2014, a period that Ho was heading the Public Prosecutions Office (MP).

He has been accused of many crimes including 434 counts of unlawful participation in businesses, 56 counts of money laundering (in total of 75 together with other suspects), 69 counts of abuse of power and 19 counts of fraud involving large amounts of money. RM