BEIJING • Eight men have gone on trial in China's Guangdong province over the kidnapping of a Hong Kong heiress for a multi-million- dollar ransom last year.
Six of them were indicted for abduction while the other two were charged with handling illegal gains, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court said in a social network post on Thursday.
The gang abducted Ms Queenie Rosita Law, grand-daughter of the late textile tycoon and founder of Bossini clothing chain Law Ting Pong, at her house in Hong Kong in April last year.
They also stole watches and jewels worth HK$2 million (S$353,000), the court said.
They held the 29-year-old in a mountain cave before family members paid a ransom of HK$28 million for her three days later.
Eight members of the gang were captured in the mainland in early May while another suspect was arrested in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong police recovered HK$15 million in cash while police in Shenzhen, which neighbours the former British colony, seized HK$3.65 million, according to the court statement.
Three of the suspects who went on trial on Thursday denied that they had shared any of the ransom, while the two who were accused of selling the stolen property said they were unaware it had been illegally obtained, the state-run Beijing News reported yesterday.
The trial was to continue yesterday.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
