The Public Prosecution Office (MP) said in a statement on Saturday that a cabbie who locked a man and his grandson inside his taxi had been released on his own recognisance.
A Public Security Police (PSP) spokesperson announced the case during a regular press conference last Thursday. The suspect was identified as a man in his thirties surnamed Fong.
According to the spokesperson, the two passengers are a local man in his sixties working in a bank and his five-year-old grandson.
On Tuesday night last week, the victim and his grandson got into the taxi driven by Fong in Avenida Comercial de Macau in Nam Van and asked him to take them to a residential building near Kun Iam Statue in Nape, according to the spokesperson.
However, during the trip Fong told the victim and his grandson to get out of his vehicle outside a residential building opposite the MGM casino resort in Avenida 24 de Junho in Nape, the spokesperson said, adding that the victim refused and demanded to be taken to the destination he had requested.
According to the spokesperson, Fong refused to do as the victim asked and then drove his vehicle to Rua de Paris in Nape, parked his taxi in a parking space there, switched off the engine, got out of the vehicle, locked the two passengers inside, and then left the scene.
According to the spokesperson, the victim called two colleagues, asking them to rescue him and his grandson. The two colleagues, a man and a woman, tried to open the taxi’s doors, but initially could not. They reported the incident to the police. They continued trying to open the doors for a few minutes and finally succeeded in opening one of them.
According to the spokesperson, PSP officers later arrived at the scene when Fong also returned to the scene.
Under questioning by police officers, Fong denied that he intended to falsely imprison the two passengers, the spokesperson said.
Fong told the police that the victim was speaking Putonghua. Fong said he thought that the victim wanted to go to the residential building opposite the MGM casino resort, according to the spokesperson.
According to the spokesperson, Fong also claimed that he parked his vehicle due to a traffic jam. Fong went on to say that he switched off the engine and got out of his taxi as the victim was emotional and refused to get out of his vehicle, after which he was simply standing at the rear of his vehicle to wait for the two passengers to get out.
According to the spokesperson, Fong insisted that he did not lock the victim and his grandson inside the taxi.
The MP statement on Saturday said that Fong is under investigation for possible arraignment on a charge of false imprisonment.
According to Article 152 of the Macau Penal Code, Fong faces between 1 and 5 years behind bars for false imprisonment.
The statement also said that Fong has been ordered to regularly report to the police during the ongoing investigation.
Macau has been hit by a wave of very serious violations by taxi drivers since the beginning of the year.
This handout photo released by the Public Security Police (PSP) last Thursday shows the taxi driven by the suspected rogue cabbie.
