Macao's jailed ex-secretary convicted of 24 new corruption charges

MACAO, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Jailed former Secretary for Transport and
Public Works of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Ao Man Long was
sentenced by the court to 28-year imprisonment Wednesday as he was found guilty
of 24 new charges of corruption-related crimes in his second-round trial.

Ao, the most senior official convicted of crimes ever since the
establishment of the SAR, was already sentenced in January last year to a record
sentence of 27 years on 57 counts of corruption, money laundering, abuse of
power, and false declaration of assets. The ex-secretary was arrested by
officers of the SAR's Commission Against Corruption (CAC) in December 2006. The
imprisoned Ao stood trial again on new charges of corruption-related crimes on
Feb. 18this year at the SAR's Court of Final Appeal.

After a series of court hearings, the Court announced the verdict on
Wednesday that Ao was sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail and was
ordered to pay a fine of 240,000 patacas (30,379 U.S. dollars) on 24 convicted
counts of corruption and money laundering.

The second round of Ao's trial involved 23 local public and private
projects, and Ao abused his power to get kickbacks as the then secretary for
transport and public works by manipulating the land granting and other
procedures, according to the verdict.

The 53-year-old Ao's criminal behavior has severely impeded his
department's act to exercise its public rights as he showed partiality to the
bribers, which created unfair situations, said Sam Hou Fai, who chaired the
collegiate bench of the Court, when reading out the verdict.

Combining his previous convicted charges, Ao was found guilty of 81 counts
of crimes, which will theoretically put him in jail for a total of 368 years and
nine months. However, as the SAR's law provides for a maximum sentence of
30-year imprisonment only, the Court therefore meted out a sentence of 28 years
to Ao, on the basis of invalidating the previous sentence of 27 years, according
to the verdict.

Being a high-ranking official overseeing the SAR's land use, Ao allegedly
received millions of dollars in kickbacks, many of which have been transferred
to Ao's offshore accounts, when he was still in office.

Previously, Hong Kong's Court of First Instance has granted a confiscation
order sought by Macao SAR government to recover assets Ao and his relatives
retained in Hong Kong, which is worth 236 million Hong Kong dollars (29.9
million U.S. dollars).