Taiwan no ‘typhoon shelter’ for body-in-cement murder suspects: Hong Kong police bring back trio
Taiwan media reports that the three men got new tattoos to cover up old ones, were rowdy in hideout ‘as if they were having party’ every night
Three fugitives wanted over the grisly ‘body-in-cement’ murder were back in Hong Kong police custody last night after a joint operation between agencies in the city and Taiwan.
The men – aged 20, 23 and 26 – are accused of fleeing Hong Kong after the decomposing remains of jobless man Cheung Man-li, 28, were discovered encased in cement inside a box in a Tsuen Wan factory unit last month.
Their return – in the absence of any formal extradition or surrender agreement between the two places – is a landmark moment in inter-agency crime-fighting according to well-placed sources in Hong Kong.
It is the first time such a transfer has been successfully concluded since the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.
The trio were escorted back by nine Hong Kong officers who flew to Taiwan yesterday to ensure the safe return. Handcuffed and wearing face masks, they were taken to Taipei Taoyuan International Airport at lunchtime and handed over to the Hong Kong officers on the terminal bridge.
They boarded a flight which reached Hong Kong around 6pm.
It was understood that the three suspects were not handcuffed on the plane.
“We have no jurisdiction to do that,” a source with the knowledge of the case said. But he added that “we have done a risk assessment on their return”.
Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun, a lawyer, said the officers could not take enforcement action on the plane.
“If the suspects’ acts may affect the safety of the aircraft, the police officers could act as passengers, take self-defence action and subdue them,” he said.
“Under the international civil aviation law, the pilot has the greatest authority and could issue an order to restrain them.”
Last night, the suspects were being held for questioning in Tsuen Wan police station and had not been charged.
An 18-year-old female suspect, who fled to Taiwan on March 11 with the trio, was arrested when she returned to Hong Kong on Monday night. She was still under detention last night.
She told Taiwan police where the men were on Sunday night in exchange for a guarantee of her personal safety, saying she feared for her life if she stayed with them.
The return marked a milestone in co-operation, according to a senior Hong Kong police official. “This indicates a good development in law enforcement cooperation between Hong Kong and Taiwan,” the officer said. “The cooperation also sends a clear message to criminals that they cannot use Taiwan as a typhoon shelter.”
According to Taiwanese authorities, the men were deported because their visas were annulled on the grounds that they might pose a threat to public security.
Hong Kong police have been on the trail of the four key suspects in connection with the shocking murder case.
Police believe Cheung was killed when he went to the flat to demand payment of a HK$1 million debt. So far police have arrested nine people including Cheung’s girlfriend. Five of them, including the girlfriend, had been released on bail. None of them has been charged.
