Lawyer In High-profile Feud Case Bashed With Baseball Bats

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday August 23, 2006

Mary-Anne Toy Herald Correspondent in Beijing

HONG KONG is reeling after a lawyer who represents the estranged sister of the Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho in a feud was attacked by three baseball-bat-wielding thugs in a fast-food restaurant.

Albert Ho Chun-yan, a Hong Kong legislator and Democratic Party vice-president, is being treated for a broken nose and eye and head injuries suffered in the attack. Pictures of him lying bloodied and bruised on the floor of the McDonald's restaurant have been plastered all over the local media.

The Democratic Party chairman, Lee Wing-tat, said after visiting Mr Ho in hospital that the lawyer believed the attack was motivated by his legal work rather than his political career. "Albert and his firm have a reputation for taking cases that others do not dare. We don't want to speculate, but one case stands out in that the previous lawyer was also attacked," Mr Lee said.

Mr Ho represents Winnie Ho - no relation - in a complicated legal battle over the restructuring by her brother Stanley Ho of his extensive Macau casino holdings after his 40-year gaming monopoly ended in 2002.

In an advertisement in Hong Kong newspapers yesterday Ms Ho condemned the attack and said another of her solicitors, Chiu Cheun Mok, was beaten in a similar attack in 2003.

The attack occurred on Sunday afternoon as Mr Ho lunched with a fellow legislator after attending a rally against Hong Kong's proposed goods and services tax.

The Hong Kong chief executive, Donald Tsang, said the attack was a challenge to the territory's political system and law and order, and he promised to hunt down the criminals.

An independent legislator, Albert Chan Wai-yip, was quoted in the South China Morning Post as saying: "It's a blatant challenge to the strong governance of the Tsang administration. It is like Shanghai in the '40s, when everything was controlled by triads."

In May indigenous villagers angry over Albert Ho's rural housing policies threatened him. He was also involved in a hunger strike in February in support of a mainland dissident lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, who has represented the Falun Gong movement and has been involved in other human rights cases in China.

Stanley Ho's office did not reply to a request for comment.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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