Macau’s Court of First Instance (TJB) adjourned on Friday a corruption trial of 21 defendants, including two former directors of the now-defunct lands, public works and transport bureau (DSSOPT) and several well-known businessmen, as some of the defendants failed to show up.
The court decided to postpone the trial to November 25, starting at 9:30 a.m.
According to a statement by the court released through the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS), 10 of the defendants are on the run including ex-DSSOPT director Jaime Roberto Carion.
Former DSSOPT director Li Canfeng and businessmen Sio Tak Hong and Kuan Vai Lam were remanded in custody earlier this year. They are being held at Macau Prison in Coloane.
The defendants also include prominent businessman Ng Lap Seng, who returned to Macau in April 2021 after he had been imprisoned in New York for 34 months for bribing a former president of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The local trial’s defendants face a range of charges such as corruption, membership of a criminal organisation, money laundering, document forgery, and membership of a secret society.
