6th suspect arrested in murder of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi - The Straits Times

A sixth suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder of 28-year-old Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi, whose dismembered body was discovered last week.

The suspect, a 41-year-old man surnamed Lam, allegedly tried to help one of the other suspects in the murder case flee Hong Kong by water for a fee of HK$100,000 (S$17,000), police said in a briefing on Thursday evening.

Lam, the employee of a yacht rental company, was arrested in Sheung Wan, a district west of central Hong Kong, on Thursday afternoon. He is believed to have assisted Ms Choi’s former husband Alex Kwong, 28, who attempted to flee Hong Kong via a speedboat on Feb 25.

The grisly details of Ms Choi’s murder have attracted worldwide media attention. She was reported missing on Feb 21 and several body parts, including her legs, were found on Feb 24.

Her head was found two days later, together with other body parts, in a large soup pot in a rented village house in Tai Po, a suburb in Hong Kong. Officers also seized a meat grinder, electric saw and knives.

On Tuesday, Hong Kong police started a search for Ms Choi’s missing torso and arms in a city landfill about the size of a football field, after her family members identified her other remains at a mortuary.

At Thursday’s media briefing, police said they have not found any more evidence related to the murder case, and that the search operation had ended.

When Kwong was arrested in a police ambush at Tung Chung pier on Lantau Island, he had HK$500,000 in cash and several luxury watches worth about HK$4 million on him.

In addition to Kwong, three others have been charged in connection with the brutal killing. The three are Kwong’s brother, father and mother. They are scheduled to appear in court again on May 8.

Ms Choi, who had two children with Kwong, had married again, and had two more children.

The mastermind behind the murder is believed to be Kwong’s father and Ms Choi’s former father-in-law, Kwong Kau, 65, a former policeman. The police say a property dispute is a possible motive for the murder.

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2023-03-02 13:13:38Z
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Hong Kong police used GPS data, security footage in search for slain model Abby Choi - South China Morning Post

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1. Hong Kong police used GPS data, security footage in search for slain model Abby Choi  South China Morning Post
2. Police look for evidence for slain Hong Kong model Abby Choi's case  CNA
3. The gruesome history of killing and dismemberment in Hong Kong before latest murder of young model  South China Morning Post
4. Abby Choi's Death Shows Dark Side of Hong Kong Property Market  Bloomberg
5. What we know about the luxury apartment linked to Abby Choi's murder probe  The Straits Times
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2023-03-01 12:20:26Z
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Hong Kong police return to village as search for Abby Choi body parts draws blank - South China Morning Post

Officers recovered several bones on Tuesday that would need to be tested to confirm their origin. Authorities made no significant discoveries on Wednesday.

The operation was set to continue on Thursday, as police said the targeted area was of the size of a soccer pitch and five metres (16 feet) deep.

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The recently rented flat, on the ground floor of a three-storey house in Lung Mei Tsuen, remains cordoned off. Bouquets of chrysanthemum and apples as offerings have been left nearby.

LIVE: MURDER- Hong Kong police returned to a Tai Po village on Wed to interview residents as they gathered more evidence into the gruesome killing of socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung, whose torso and hands remain missing. pic.twitter.com/gSVqyRpSVA

— Denise Tsang (@denise_tsang) March 1, 2023

About a dozen officers from the Kowloon West regional crime unit descended on the village on Wednesday morning before dividing into smaller teams to speak to locals. Some residents helped the investigators by providing footage from cameras installed in cars and their homes.

Retiree Mrs Chan said police asked her several questions, including whether she had heard any noises or seen any suspicious activity or people on Tuesday last week.

“I heard nothing and went to sleep early at 9pm that night,” said Chan, 65, a resident of the village for more two decades who lives with her husband and a grandson.

Four former family members of Choi were earlier arrested for their alleged roles in the murder. They were remanded in custody after appearing in court on Monday on charges of murder and perverting the course of justice.

Flowers and apples have been left near the house where Abby Choi’s body was allegedly dismembered. Photo: Elson Li

While news of the case had put Lung Mei Tsuen in the limelight, it had also scared off some visitors, restaurant operators said.

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The village, in the shadow of the scenic Pat Sin Leng mountain range, is known for a nearby artificial beach and for being a top choice for barbecuing, cycling and alfresco dining.

An employee at Star Restaurant, which offers Japanese cuisine, said visitor numbers had fallen by two-thirds in the past few days.

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“We normally have families who come with kids for hiking and dining, but they did not appear in the past few days probably because of the horrific news,” the worker said, pointing to empty tables at 12.30pm and a car park in front of the restaurant that was only one-third filled.

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2023-03-01 07:29:58Z
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Japan inn apologises after hot spring bathwater found to have bacteria 3700 times over standard limit - CNA

TOKYO: The head of an upscale Japanese inn apologised on Tuesday (Feb 28) for only changing the water in its hot-spring bath every six months, allowing bacteria to breed 3,700 times over the standard limit.

Local ordinances stipulate a weekly replacement of the water in which guests traditionally soak naked together after taking showers, with men and women bathing separately.

Makoto Yamada, president of the company that operates the nearly 160-year-old inn, said the facility had neglected to keep the water hygienic by using enough chlorine.

He "didn't like the smell" of the chemical, he said at a press conference.

"It was a selfish reason," Yamada added, describing the lapse as a "wrongdoing that completely disregarded the health of our customers".

The lax measures at Daimaru Besso inn - where Japan's emperor Hirohito once stayed - began around December 2019.

Since then, staff at the facility in the southwestern Fukuoka region grew even more complacent as the number of guests dropped during the pandemic, Yamada said.

Even before the scandal made headlines, there had been red flags.

An inspection last year by authorities found double the permissible amount of legionella bacteria in the inn's bathwater.

At the time, the inn "falsified documents to claim that the chlorine had been properly added", Yamada admitted.

A subsequent probe by health authorities detected a whopping 3,700 times the standard limit of legionella.

The germ reportedly caused an individual who had visited multiple hotels including Daimaru Besso to fall sick.

Legionella bacteria can cause lung infections.

"My understanding of the law has been lax. I was complacent in thinking that legionella bacteria was just an ordinary germ that can be found everywhere," Yamada said.

The inn opened in 1865 and was about to commemorate its 160th anniversary when the scandal emerged.

"I feel sorry for our ancestors," Yamada said.

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2023-02-28 12:59:00Z
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China says US overstretching concept of national security, abusing state power on TikTok ban - CNA

BEIJING: China says the United States is overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress foreign companies after the White House gave government agencies 30 days to remove Chinese-owned app TikTok on federal devices.

"We firmly oppose those wrong actions," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning at a regular news briefing on Tuesday (Feb 28).

The US government's ban on the video-sharing app reveals Washington’s own insecurities and are an abuse of state power, she added.

“How unsure of itself can the US, the world’s top superpower, be to fear a young person's favourite app to such a degree?”

PURGING TIKTOK APP FROM US FEDERAL DEVICES

The White House on Monday gave federal agencies 30 days to purge Chinese-owned video-snippet sharing app TikTok from all government-issued devices, setting a deadline to comply with a ban ordered by the US Congress.

Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young in a memorandum called on government agencies within 30 days to "remove and disallow installations" of the application on agency-owned or operated IT devices, and to "prohibit Internet traffic" from such devices to the app.

The ban does not apply to businesses in the United States not associated with the federal government, or to the millions of private citizens who use the hugely popular app.

However, a recently introduced bill in Congress would "effectively ban TikTok" in this country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"Congress must not censor entire platforms and strip Americans of their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression," ACLU senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff said in a release.

"We have a right to use TikTok and other platforms to exchange our thoughts, ideas, and opinions with people around the country and around the world."

Owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, TikTok has become a political target due to concerns the app can be circumvented for spying or propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party.

The law signed by US President Joe Biden last month bans the use of TikTok on government-issued devices. It also bans TikTok use in the US House of Representatives and Senate.

National security concerns over alleged Chinese spying have grown over the past month after a Chinese balloon traversed US airspace and was eventually shot down.

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2023-02-28 11:11:26Z
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China must be 'more honest' on COVID-19 origins, envoy says - CNA

WASHINGTON: China must be more honest about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US ambassador to China said on Monday (Feb 27), after reports that the US Energy Department concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak.

Nicholas Burns, speaking by video link at a US Chamber of Commerce event, said it was necessary to push China to take a more active role in the World Health Organization (WHO) if the UN health agency was to be strengthened.

China also needed to "be more honest about what happened three years ago in Wuhan with the origin of the COVID-19 crisis," Burns said, referring to the central Chinese city where the first human cases were reported in December 2019.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Sunday that the US Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies.

The department made its judgement with "low confidence" in a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress, the Journal said, citing people who had read the intelligence report.

Four other US agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided, the Journal reported.

The Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment.

President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday there were a "variety of views in the intelligence community" on the pandemic's origins.

"A number of them have said they just don't have enough information," Sullivan told CNN.

Asked to comment on the report, which was confirmed by other US media, China's foreign ministry referred to a WHO-China report that pointed toward a natural origin for the pandemic, likely from bats, rather than a lab leak.

"Certain parties should stop rehashing the 'lab leak' narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the origins-tracing issue," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

"A LITTLE BIT ORWELLIAN"

Burns told the Chamber event that it was a difficult moment for US-China relations, with Beijing seeking to deflect blame after the US military this month downed an alleged Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the continental United States.

"We're now in this surreal moment where the Chinese, who I think lost the debate over the balloon globally, lost influence and credibility around the world because of what they've done - they're now blaming this on us," Burns said.

"It's a little bit Orwellian. And it's a little bit frustrating, because I think everybody knows the truth here."

China reacted angrily when the US military downed the balloon on Feb 4, saying it was for monitoring weather conditions and had blown off course.

Burns added that it was the obligation of the United States to maintain its military strength "in and around Taiwan" to ensure the self-governed island claimed by Beijing has the ability to deter any kind of "offensive action" by China.

"It's also ... our responsibility to galvanise the rest of the world to make sure that the Chinese cannot get away with coercion or intimidation against Taiwan itself," he said.

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2023-02-27 18:48:00Z
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4 family members and a mistress: Who are the 5 linked to HK model Abby Choi's grisly murder? - The Straits Times

The authorities believe they have arrested all the suspects involved in the murder of 28-year-old Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi, whose dismembered body was discovered last week.

Her headless body was found in a rented village property in Tai Po, a suburb in Hong Kong. Parts of her body – including her bashed head – had been cooked in a large soup pot, with some remains kept in a refrigerator.

Four people aged between 28 and 65 have been charged in connection with the murder and appeared in court on Monday. They include Ms Choi’s former husband, former brother-in-law and former father-in-law, who were charged with murder. Her former mother-in-law faces one charge of perverting the course of justice.

The police have also arrested the mistress of Ms Choi’s former father-in-law and are investigating if she knew about the case. 

Ms Choi was reportedly attacked in a car and fell unconscious, before she was taken to the village house. Her exact time of death is still being investigated. As the suspects are not cooperating, police said investigations have been difficult.

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2023-02-27 10:28:15Z
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