Hong Kong gangster sentenced to death

HONG KONG'S most notorious criminal, Cheung Tze-keung, known as "Big Spender" and the "Big Boss", was sentenced to death yesterday in a Chinese court. Six members of his gang also received death sentences, while 29 others were given long jail terms.

Although Cheung's lawyer says he will appeal, there is practically no likelihood of success, meaning that Cheung and his cohorts will be executed by firing squad, possibly at a public execution.

It also marks the end of a gang whose exploits were so audacious that gang members were shunned by the better- organised Triad gangs, which account for most big crimes in the southern Chinese region.

Cheung was known as "Big Spender" because of his lavish tastes. Part of yesterday's judgment involved the confiscation of assets totalling pounds 47m.

At a highly unusual press conference yesterday in Canton, where the trial was held, the judges for the first time officially revealed Cheung had kidnapped two of Hong Kong's most famous businessmen, Victor Li, the son of the tycoon Li Ka-shing, and Walter Kwok, the chairman of the Sun Hung Kai property conglomerate.

The ransoms for the release of the two men, totalling almost pounds 155m, are believed to be the highest paid in the world. Mr Li's father paid the higher sum of almost pounds 108m for the release of his son. Neither case was reported to the authorities.

Cheung received a life sentence for the kidnaps and the death sentence for smuggling 800kg of explosives and arms from China to Hong Kong.

Although there is little sympathy for Cheung in Hong Kong there is considerable disquiet about the fact that he was being tried in a Chinese court for crimes committed in the former colony, which is supposed to have a separate legal system.

After the verdict was handed down, the Hong Kong Bar Association said that the case seriously undermined China's promise of "one country, two systems". The association said the case "could give some people the false impression that the rule of law in Hong Kong is subordinate to China".

Elsie Leung, Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice, said: "Hong Kong's jurisdiction has not been impaired in any manner whatsoever." She insisted that Cheung's crimes had also been committed in China.