TNAG-1212-FCO40-1515-Crimes-and-sentences-in-Hong-Kong--including-death-sentences-1982 — Page 101

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His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong,

Government House,

Hong Kong.

Your Excellency,

Criminal Case No. 114 of 1979

Supreme Court Annexe, Arbuthnot Road,

Hong Kong.

19th March, 1980

Reg. v. 1. CHEUNG Wai Bun aged 19

2. LY Minh aged 21

3. CHAN Ting San aged 26

In accordance with Article XXXIV of the Royal Instructions I report to you the conviction today of these three young Chinese men of murder and robbery on the afternoon of 27th June of last year in Room 1175 of the Hong Kong Hotel. I passed sentence of death upon them. A jury of 6 Chinese men and 1 Chinese woman reached their verdict in 21⁄2 hours after a fairly lengthy trial.

The victim was a Syrian businessman in his sixties named Gahleb Teyfour. He was in the habit of coming to Hong Kong to buy valuable goods on a com- mercial scale and staying in the Hong Kong Hotel while doing so. He had substantial sums in cash with him. He was known to the third accused who had done business with him some months before. For this reason the third accused was unable to participate actively in the plan that was evolved by the three accused to rob the deceased in his hotel room. The first and second accused went to the deceased's room in the hotel each armed with a long knife and gained entrance somehow. The deceased put up resistance and received 8 severe stab wounds to the front, back and sides of his body, one of which penetrated the right lung and resulted in almost immediate death from enormous loss of blood. The only injury received by any of the attackers was a short cut wound to the right hand of the first accused. The attackers were surprised in the room and fled to the home of the third accused telling him that their intended victim had been injured, and taking with them only a modest sum in cash and 4 watches. They all three went to ground but were eventually arrested early in September (the third accused after a return flight from Taiwan where his family lives) and made full confessions. was largely upon these confessions that the three accused were convicted, though the first accused's palmprint was found on one of the knives which were abandoned on the rear staircase of the hotel and three clearly identi- fiable watches were produced to the police after his arrest by the third accused.

It

The three accused claimed that they had been forced or induced to sign falsely incriminating statements by officers of the Homicide Bureau. The jury clearly rejected this allegation.

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