At his first hearing at the Court of Second Instance, Assistant Prosecutor General Kong Chi denied 89 criminal charges against him and questioned the legitimacy of allegations that he abused his position to pervert justice, the Macau Daily Times reports.
Charges against Kong Chi include misfeasance, bribery, improperly accessing materials and forming a criminal syndicate, which he is alleged to have done with married couple Choi Sao Ieng and Ng Wai Chu, and lawyer Kuan Hoi Lon. The senior public prosecutor is currently on unpaid leave.
The case’s presiding judge, Tong Hio Fong, said Kong was believed to be the criminal syndicate’s ring leader. The group allegedly interfered with judicial evidence, helped suspects get acquitted, and generally obstructed the course of justice.
[See more: More fraud is being committed now than there was before the pandemic]
Kong’s indictment also alleged that he failed to declare his assets on multiple occasions and that assets of his worth 14 million patacas had suspicious origins.
Choi and Ng, meanwhile, were accused of brokering deals with suspects, case stakeholders, and those paying the bribes. These cases would allegedly be passed on to Kuan, who would act as the suspects’ defence lawyer.
This is the most serious criminal case concerning the Public Prosecutions Office since 2016, when prosecutor General Ho Chio Meng was charged with acts of forgery, fraud and money laundering.
He was convicted in 2017 and is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence at Coloane Prison.
