Hotel Lisboa prostitution ring trial closes with lenient sentences

Alan Ho at the moment of his arrest on January 2015

The verdict of the Hotel Lisboa prostitution ring was announced yesterday morning at the Court of First Instance (TJB) by the president of the collective of judges, Rui Ribeiro.
After fourteen months behind bars, Alan Ho, the former executive director of the Hotel Lisboa and nephew of Macau gaming tycoon Stanley Ho, will walk out of jail. He has receiving a sentence of thirteen months of imprisonment (which has already been served) for one crime of prostitution exploitation due to being aware of the activities, and yet allowing them to continue to operate in the hotel he headed.
Kelly Wong, the former assistant deputy manager for the “Special Market” of Hotel Lisboa was the only defendant to be sentenced with a severe penalty. She was condemned to 2 years and 5 months behind bars, for having financially profited from the crime of prostitution.
The other four defendants, Peter Lun, Bruce Mak, Qiao Yan Yan and Pun Cham Un, were considered guilty of complicity in the activities and were handed down sentences ranging from 5 to 7 months of imprisonment, all of which have been considered served.
During the reading of the verdict, Ribeiro explained why the defendants were considered not guilty of the accusations of establishing and taking part in a criminal organization. He stated that “there is not one single fact in the reports [of the Judiciary Police] that allows us to relate this activity to a criminal association.” He added that a “association is a concept well established in constitutional rights and criminal association needs strong evidence in order to prove it.” In this case, this proof was not evident.
The court also noted that the verdict was based on the “wiretappings,” gathered documents, and witness testimonies. The reports from the Judiciary Police were useful as guides in the analysis and contextualization of the “wiretappings.”
The collective of judges decided to convict the defendants of only one crime of prostitution exploitation and not of the 90 counts, as the public prosecution wanted.
Regarding the second defendant Kelly Wong, the court decided that it was sufficiently proved that she took advantage of her position to charge fees to prostitutes; money to which she knew she was not entitled. In addition, she took advantage of her position to use the fifth and sixth defendants to help her to cover her activities, showing a direct intent.
Wong who has already served approximately 14 months of jail time, will now spend another 15 months in prison. This will be without the possibility of appealing for a suspension of her sentence as the legal framework which surrounds the crime doesn’t allow that request.
Nevertheless, until the sentence becomes final, she can no longer be held in preventive custody. This led the court to implement the safeguards of a weekly presentation to the Public Security Police Force (PSP) station, and a prohibition on leaving the territory.
As for the first defendant, Alan Ho, although the crimes related to criminal association were unproven, the court acknowledged that he helped to organize and facilitate the prostitution activities in the hotel he headed, which, due to his level of education and studies in law, are inexcusable.
The court also referred to the fact that that although the current legal framework surrounding prostitution activities was only established in 1997, the prostitution activities were reported to have been ongoing from a much earlier period. As a result, “the hotel [and its management] should have taken the initiative to address that fact after the law changed” and such conduct became criminalized.
As for the other four defendants, their accountability was deemed to be lesser due to the fact that their guilt resulted mostly from “imposed working duties resulting from their positions and functions.”
None of the lawyers of the defendants or the accusation contested the final verdict.