MP mulls Chiang’s extradition after trial

The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, attends the opening ceremony of the seminar “Ten Years of Public Prosecutions Office of Macao and the Establishment of Legal System.”

Extraditing Pedro Chiang, the suspect in the Ao Man Long corruption and money laundering case, from Portugal should only be considered after his trial in Macau, Public Prosecutor, Ho Chio Meng, told the media yesterday.
Asked about the follow up of the local businessman’s case, Ho Chio Meng stressed he would not comment on it in detail. However, he was keen to emphasise that the trial should be held here.
Pedro Chiang “should be put on trial in Macau. Public Prosecutions Office (MP) has already prosecuted him, sent the indictment to the court and the trial is scheduled,” the prosecutor said again. That is expected to start next month, but there is no official reference yet to a concrete date.
“Extradition it is a possibility to be considered after the trial,” he added, speaking on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the seminar on “Ten Years of the MP and the Construction of Legal System.”
Ho Chio Meng has already said that the MP is fighting to bring Pedro Chiang back. Being wanted by INTERPOL, the suspect, born in 1956 in Cambodia, reportedly stayed in his birth place after the former transport and public works secretary, Ao Man Long, was arrested in 2006 by the Macau Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) for bribe taking and money laundering.
Having dual Cambodian and Portuguese citizenship, Chiang moved to Portugal and came forward to the Portuguese Attorney General’s Office. It is believed that the verdict handed down by a Portuguese court is likely to be less severe than by a Macau court. Thus, he is hoping to be investigated and tried in Portugal.
Despite the existence of mutual legal assistance agreements between Portugal and Macau concerning the obligations to assist in the arrest and handover of suspects, they are only principle agreements and no concrete operational guidelines have been proposed.
According to the president of the Macau Lawyers Association, Jorge Neto Valente, also attending the seminar, the procedure for extradition of Pedro Chiang would not be easy. “In the legal framework, it is not possible to oblige Portugal to extradite an individual that is a Portuguese citizenship,” he pointed out.
Neto Valente added the only way for Macau to be successful in Chiang’s extradition is if he does it by his own will. The territory “may ask the Portuguese authorities to make procedures to persuade the suspect to come back,” he added.
INTERPOL and the CCAC have already contacted the Portuguese authorities regarding the matter. If the Portuguese judicial authority decides to process the bribery and money laundering case, it will need to apply to the Macau SAR to transfer all the related court files and hand down the punishment based on Portugal’s penal code. As such, Chiang will also serve his sentence in Portugal.
Pedro Chiang is accused in 12 land grants, exchange of land parcels, the changing of land use and planning projects. Apart from him, Ao Man Long’s wife Chan Meng Ieng, and two other local businessmen Tang Kim Man and Ho Meng Fai are also being sought by INTERPOL on fraud and money laundering charges in Macau.
Ao Man Long has already faced two trials in Macau, and has been jailed for a sum of 28 years. The former secretary will be tried at least once more.

Prosecution Office’s future challenges

The president of Macau Lawyers Association also pointed out that Chiang’s case may be a sign that something is wrong in the Macau judiciary system. “There is the question about how long you have to wait for being tried in Macau. Maybe he would have to wait in jail for two years, which is the legal maximum duration. That frightens someone who is sure about its innocence,” he said.
Neto Valente said this situation means the system is wrong and he continued to say that it should be corrected as soon as possible.
Regarding the local judiciary system, the Public Prosecutor insisted in his speech that some reforms needed to be made in the future in order to face the new challenges. “We have to be brave to face new challenges and take the responsibilities with a new mentality,” he said.
Ho Chio Meng’s proposals are already well known. Firstly, he defends to put more effort in the use of the Chinese language in the judiciary system. Secondly, he pledged to set up a system of judicial theory aiming to coordinate laws’ hierarchies and by-laws, as well as all the judiciary departments.
The seminar on “Ten Years of the MP and the Construction of Legal System” was presided over by the new Chief Executive, Chui Sai On. A total of 120 individuals from Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China have attended the event.
Ho Chio Meng also said that in the midst of 2010, Macau may sign agreements with mainland China to cooperate in matters like sharing of documents and evidence.