View Full Version : More troubles in Macau
Steppin Short
01-05-2002, 04:57
Strong rumours from Macau that a trainer was kidnapped after the races on Sunday. Was released this morning, 3 mil lighter and admitted to hospital with injuries from what was discribed as a fair flogging.
Police enquiries more will surface in the next few days.
A racing paper has reported that the trainer involved is M.C. Tam.
cheesebeast
01-05-2002, 06:03
Macau doesn't sound like the safest place in the world to be a racehorse trainer - heaven help you if the wrong horse wins. :mad:
rubbintug
01-05-2002, 06:09
According to the Chinese ATV news tonight, not only did they get MC Tam back - but also got the four crooks (3 mainland men and one woman) and the $3m cash back too.
Now that's the sort of tierce you don't expect to get in a kidnapping case.
Just watched the news on cable. The gang originally asked for $10 million but finally settled for $3 million. Five people were arrested, three locals and two mainlanders. Guns were also found.
[ May 01, 2002: Message edited by: masun ]
HEY THIS THREAD grew beryb quickly == sorry but i hace had a few drinks AND have to work tomorrow/
with this stuff going on HOW can theyblaim triners for + ve drub tests.
horseshoof
01-05-2002, 16:11
Police rescue kidnapped trainer
Five arrested after 'brutal' abduction of Macau racing figure Allan Tam
MARCAL JOANILHO and HARALD BRUNING in Macau
Leading Macau horse trainer Allan Tam Man-chau was yesterday rescued by police after being kidnapped and brutally beaten by a gang believed responsible for six other multi-million-dollar kidnappings in the enclave.
Four men, including the abduction's alleged mastermind, and a woman were arrested. Police recovered a $3 million ransom which had been paid by Tam's family, and seized two guns, 14 rounds of bullets and three balaclavas.
The 43-year-old trainer, who is currently leading the Macau trainers' championship, was kidnapped from his home on Taipa Island on Monday afternoon. He had been due to meet a horse owner at Chek Lap Kok airport that day. They were to fly to England to purchase horses for the next season.
The kidnappers contacted the family and initially demanded $10 million for Tam's safe return.
Police said the kidnappers - three Macau residents and two mainlanders - were also behind a series of six other kidnappings, in which a total of $12 million in ransoms was paid.
A spokesman for the Macau Judicial Police said at a press conference late last night that Tam had been "brutally beaten up" by the kidnappers whom he described as "well-organised".
He said Tam's family had talked the ransom down to $3 million.
The kidnappers insisted that the sum be paid in HK$1,000 notes. A special taskforce to investigate the crime was immediately set up by Judicial Police detectives who watched the ransom get picked up early yesterday morning.
Police raided a flat in Rua Pereira, near the Fortress of Mong-ha on the Macau Peninsula, where they rescued Tam and arrested two of the kidnappers who were guarding the trainer.
"The victim is fine now," said the spokesman.
Tam, who was not available for comment, was a prominent Hong Kong jockey until 1986 when he was arrested with several other riders by the Independent Commission Against Corruption for his part in the so-called Shanghai Syndicate race-fixing scandal.
He was jailed and banned worldwide until April 5, 1997.
But the ban was shortened by 18 months after he appealed to the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Upon the completion of his disqualification, Tam moved to Macau in 1996 as a stable manager, becoming a trainer last July.
I bet this type of publicity must warm the hearts of people like Steve Wynn who are embarking on a massive investment in the place.
Bodyguards could be the next boom business in the enclave. If you've got big cash, you better have someone watching your ass.
Old Stanley Ho always parades around with a couple of gun-toting heavies.
Bodyguards could be the next boom business in the enclave.
A few issues ago the Chinese Next Magazine ran a feature on bodyguards in HK. A top bodyguard with previous experience in the G4 VIP Protection Unit can earn as much as a million bucks a year! From what I can remember, most bigshots have between 4 to 8 bodyguards, costing them anywhere from half a million to 2 million dollars.
There certainly seems to be a lot of trouble surrounding the racing scene at present, I wonder how many other incidents have gone unreported?! This is without doubt the biggest of three or four incidents involving those connected with racing, that I have heard of.
Macau has never been known as having the straightest racing, but the MJC really seem to be fighting an uphill battle now - how the hell are they going to get out of this one now?
How is Mr. Tam? Any word yet on the extent of his injuries?
What's wrong with a bit of local colour? Whatever happened to that TV commentator there who was at risk the other week after Mick Kent getting whacked on the scone with a bottle? He seems to have disappeared too. Wonder what the ransom asked might be there.
________
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Mr Crapola
04-05-2002, 20:15
My mail is that that the kidnappers are trying desperately to raise enough cash to try and bribe the MJC into taking him back !!
Not sure the MJC is that desperate
________
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I ve always admired the asians for sticking it up the dwarfs and other racing players . More of it should go on here in Australia . The inbreds are a protected species over here .
Summary of a report in Apple Daily today:
One of the kidnappers -- a 37-year old man surnamed Tse and believed to be the mastermind of the case -- was originally held custody in a prison. Yesterday he was taken from the prison to a police station to give deposition. The man fell ill and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
It's believed that the suspect was involved in at least five other kidnaps in Macau last year. As for trainer MC Tam, he was severely beaten up by the kidnappers and had 6 rib bones broken.
Nick Mordin quoted Orson Welles in his book:
"In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock."
Judging from the way things have been going in the last few years, a Macau Michelangelo will soon be produced.
[ May 09, 2002: Message edited by: masun ]
Yesterday he was taken from the prison to a police station to give deposition. The man fell ill and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
in some countries the above would create a media frenzy and anti police backlash. in macau will it just be ignored and regarded as routine ???
thank god i am in HK and not macau.
I don't know what the reactions are in Macau. Hopefully the papers will follow the case closely. Regardless, it must be odds on that eventually it'll be ruled that the bloke died of natural causes.
I think the other kidnappers will be a touch nervous about their food and drink
________
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blackbeauty
10-05-2002, 17:15
It shouldn't be immediately assumed that the death was connected to the most recent kidnapping. There are another four very angry victims.
ahha -- i assumed, probably incorrectly, that the death was a result of the visit to the police station. if he was in fact poisoned, or some such, then there should be no problems with announcing the cause of death. also both the perpetrator and the reason behind it could both be hard to ascertain.
Have read from the papers that it was actually Brian Kan who paid the ransom -- Tam's family couldn't raise the money and asked Kan for help. When asked by the media if this was true, Kan was uncharacteristically ambiguous and replied he didn't know.
According to TVB news tonight, the family of the dead kidnapper petitioned the police asking them to investigate and fully disclose what happened. TVB said an autopsy revealed that the death was caused by violence. Having read other posts, I have to say it's not a foregone conclusion that the death was necessarily caused by police brutality. The kidnappers beat up MC Tam real bad. There's reason to believe that they might have meted out same treatment to other victims. IF that was case, it's quite possible that one or more of those aggrieved parties asked their "friends" in prison to settle the score for them. The injuries might not be visible (the prisoners should be quite expert in this sort of stuff) but were serious enough that when Tse was taken to the police station, he died of internal bleeding or some such causes.
Tuesday, May 14, 2002 Macau custody-death inquiry
HARALD BRUNING
Macau's police chief yesterday ordered an urgent inquiry into the death of a prisoner in custody over a kidnapping case and promised that any officers found guilty of wrongdoing would be punished. The pledge came from the commander-general of Macau's Unitary Police Services, Jose Proenca Branco.
According to an official statement issued by Mr Branco, the office of Macau's Public Prosecution will also take measures to establish ''the whole truth'' about the death of kidnapping suspect Che Ion-un.
Che, 37, died at the government-run Conde de Sao Januario Hospital Centre last Wednesday.
He had been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a Macau racehorse trainer.
Yesterday, his family petitioned Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah, asking for an open and fair investigation into his death.
Che died one hour after he ''fell ill'' in a police station while awaiting interrogation for his alleged role in the abduction of Allan Tam Man-chau on April 30.
Earlier in the day he had been taken from his prison cell on Coloane Island to the police station. He had been there for about an hour before he was rushed to hospital.
A postmortem examination found Che died of ''acute renal failure caused by assault by blunt force''.
The death certificate also stated he had suffered from severe hepatic cirrhosis, a liver disease.
Five members of Che's family, including his widow, wept and knelt when they handed the petition in at the Macau Government Headquarters and the Public Prosecutor's Office.
''We demand an open and fair investigation,'' said Che's widow, Chan Chi-yao. ''We only want to know the truth.''
On Saturday she claimed her husband had bruises all over his face and was unable to walk properly when she visited him at Macau's Central Prison two days before his death.
''acute renal failure caused by assault by blunt force'' if the assault was internal it sounds like a very unpleasant way to die.
On Saturday she claimed her husband had bruises all over his face and was unable to walk properly when she visited him at Macau's Central Prison two days before his death.
Sounds like the inmates had already given him a warm welcome.
Steppin Short
15-05-2002, 09:08
There are heads to roll over the assault and death, investigations suggest that murder charges will be laid against the police officers involved. There is also another "alleged kidnapper" in intensive care, who also became ill after interrogation.
Story is that half of the constabulary in Macau are burning Budda Sticks and praying for his recovery.
Interesting, a lot of pressure from Government in Macau and China to clear this up, especially since it has made the press.
Friday, June 7, 2002 HARALD BRUNING'S MACAU
Claims of brutality highlight the need to police police
Allegations of police brutality that resulted in last month's death of a remand prisoner have sent shock waves through Macau. The claims involved allegedly false confessions extracted by physical coercion and violent interrogation practices.
According to a postmortem examination, the prisoner in custody died at a local hospital of ''acute renal failure caused by assault with blunt force''. This came just one hour after he had ''fallen ill'' at a police station while awaiting interrogation for his alleged involvement in a kidnapping case, according to a government statement at the time.
The victim's family has petitioned Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah and filed a formal complaint to the Public Prosecution, demanding a fair and thorough investigation.
The family's legal counsel, Antonio Almeida Ferreira, in an interview with the Portuguese-language Hoje Macau daily, accused the police of ''completely medieval'' interrogation methods, claiming that ''torture to extract confessions is a recurrent means''.
Macau's top public prosecutor, Procurator-General Ho Chio-meng, has launched an inquiry into the incident, stressing that the civil rights of prisoners are ''guaranteed by law''. Unlike in Hong Kong, the Public Prosecution in Macau is not part of the executive, but the judiciary. The Commander-General of the Macau Unitary Police Services, Jose Branco, has instituted an internal investigation.
In another case of alleged police brutality, the parents of four teenagers suspected of arson claim that their sons signed ''forced'' confessions last month, following two days of alleged beatings and death threats by interrogators at a police station.
The Public Prosecution has also launched an investigation into the allegations. Members of Macau's legal fraternity admit they fear the alleged cases of police brutality may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Privately, sources familiar with the situation allege that the practice of ''roughing suspects up a bit'' is a deplorable legacy of the 1990s, when Macau's security forces were under immense pressure from the public to produce swift results in an uphill battle against a wave of violent crimes.
Macau's public security situation has dramatically improved since its 1999 return to Chinese rule. Reduced pressure from the crime front should have given Macau's top public security officials ample time to weed out rogue officers, clamp down on graft and abuse of power.
They also need to raise discipline and educational standards among the rank and file, about half of whom are said by their superiors to be ''semi-literate at best''.
Police training ought to include the teaching of efficient but humane interrogation methods that fully respect suspects' civil rights, which are protected by the Basic Law and at least 13 international human rights conventions.
The cases of alleged abuse have renewed calls by community leaders to finally set up an independent civilian body to ''police the police''. Ideally, the body would comprise non-official members appointed by the Chief Executive on the basis of their standing in society, such as lawyers, social workers and legislators. This will help ensure complaints against law-enforcement officers can be investigated thoroughly and impartially.
The police must strike a delicate balance between the rights of suspects and those of their alleged victims. The latter must be sure that the police possess the proper - but always humane - means to interrogate those who allegedly did them harm.
Harald Bruning (buttje@macau.ctm.net) is the Post's Macau correspondent.
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