Local newspaper publisher Lam Chong has been acquitted of defamation in a case involving three senior members of the Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM) – directly-elected lawmaker José Maria Pereira Coutinho, who heads the association’s board of directors, Rita Santos, who chairs its general meeting, and Armando de Jesus, a vice-president of the board of directors.
Lam, who was acquitted by the Court of First Instance (TJB) on Friday, is a seasoned commentator and director of the Chinese-language daily San Wa Ou, also known as Correio Sino-Macaense.
The trial was about an article published by the newspaper in 2017 which appeared to insinuate that the trio, all of them members of a council representing overseas Portuguese, had charged applicants 18,000 yuan (21,560 patacas at the current exchange rate) each for assisting them to obtain or renew a Portuguese passport.
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