Bail denied for 4 suspects in $400k Hong Kong cash heist
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Given the “seriousness of the case”, all four were remanded in custody pending trial.
PHOTO: AFP
HONG KONG – A Hong Kong court on Feb 2 denied bail to four of six suspects in a high-profile 51 million yen (S$418,600) heist
Given the “seriousness of the case”, all four were remanded in custody pending trial, said Principal Magistrate David Cheung of Hong Kong’s Eastern Magistrates’ Courts, adjourning the case until April 14 for further police investigation.
The four suspects – three Japanese men and one woman from China – have been charged with conspiracy to rob a 51-year-old Japanese man of a backpack containing the cash.
According to the police, two of the Japanese men in their 20s allegedly snatched the bag after the victim got out of a taxi in Sheung Wan commercial district on the morning of Jan 30.
The two men, along with the Chinese woman, 52, suspected of assisting in the crime, were arrested later in the afternoon at Hong Kong International Airport.
The third Japanese man arrested in the case was a 27-year-old who accompanied the victim on the taxi ride and reported the robbery. The police believe he was an accomplice who provided inside information.
The victim, reportedly a worker at a precious metals dealer, had attempted to exchange yen for foreign currency to purchase precious metals and declared upon entering Hong Kong that he was carrying a large amount of cash.
The two other male suspects, a Hong Kong resident and a Chinese national, who were arrested on suspicion of helping to handle some of the stolen money, were earlier granted bail pending further investigation and were required to report to police in early March.
The robbery followed an earlier incident in a carpark in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Jan 30, in which a man carrying a large amount of cash was attacked
