Taiwan no ‘typhoon shelter’ for body-in-cement murder suspects: Hong Kong police bring back trio
Taiwan media reports that the three men got new tattoos to cover up old ones, were rowdy in hideout ‘as if they were having party’ every night
Three fugitives wanted over the grisly ‘body-in-cement’ murder were back in Hong Kong police custody last night after a joint operation between agencies in the city and Taiwan.
The men – aged 20, 23 and 26 – are accused of fleeing Hong Kong after the decomposing remains of jobless man Cheung Man-li, 28, were discovered encased in cement inside a box in a Tsuen Wan factory unit last month.
Their return – in the absence of any formal extradition or surrender agreement between the two places – is a landmark moment in inter-agency crime-fighting according to well-placed sources in Hong Kong.
It is the first time such a transfer has been successfully concluded since the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.
The trio were escorted back by nine Hong Kong officers who flew to Taiwan yesterday to ensure the safe return. Handcuffed and wearing face masks, they were taken to Taipei Taoyuan International Airport at lunchtime and handed over to the Hong Kong officers on the terminal bridge.
