|
HONG KONG - MACAU'S highest court yesterday sentenced a former minister whom it labelled as 'very greedy' to 27 years in jail for taking tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks, in the gambling enclave's largest corruption case.
Ao Man Long, a former transport and public works secretary, was found guilty on 57 counts of taking bribes, laundering money and abusing his power to help property developers win lucrative construction tenders.
Ao, driven to court in a police convoy in heavy rain, stood stony-faced and motionless as the verdict was read out in a hushed courtroom.
Head bowed, he was then escorted out of the courtroom after standing silently throughout the two hours it took a judge to outline the scores of charges against him.
The court ordered him to return 252 million patacas (S$45 million) to the government, as well as other properties and assets. It also fined him 240,000 patacas.
The 51-year-old was accused of amassing a personal fortune of more than US$100 million (S$145 million) by taking kickbacks for 41 public works projects, including contracts linked to casino construction.
The sum is 57 times his income over seven years as a top policy secretary.
Prosecutors said his assets included cash, bank deposits, watches, jewellery and a 300-bottle wine cellar.
'The defendant was one of the top government officials of Macau SAR. The bribes are huge and his behaviour was shocking,' Justice Sam Hou Fai, head of the three-judge panel, told the court.
'It created a negative image of Macau abroad and will damage the reputation of Macau and major government officials,' he said, describing Ao as 'very greedy' during the reading of the verdict.
Ao, who had faced a maximum of 30 years behind bars, denied any wrongdoing. He chose not to appear on the stand during the trial, only making a brief statement at the end.
Macau's leader, Mr Edmund Ho, who was in southern China's Guangzhou city to meet government officials there, said of the verdict: 'The court ruled according to the law - I think it was very just.'
However, Ao's lawyer, Mr Nuno Simoes, said the severity of the sentence meant they were entitled to an appeal.
Reports have suggested that Ao became a target only after he provoked Beijing, already furious at the way mainland officials were able to launder the proceeds of their own corruption in Macau.
More than half of Ao's pet projects have since been scrapped by the government, including an ambitious cross-harbour tunnel scheme.
Macau has enjoyed an unprecedented boom since opening up its casino market in 2001.
Last year, the city took in more than US$10 billion of revenues from its casinos, more than the Las Vegas Strip and just shy of the total take by the wider Las Vegas area.
Critics have said much of the sparkling new construction has masked worsening social problems, organised crime and corruption in the city of 550,000.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
|
