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     $$     .d""b. .d""b.                  HOE E'ZINE #1077
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     $$  $$ $$  $$ $$ss$$           "The Day They Shot Big Spender"
     $$  $$ $$  $$ $$                         by, Dinkee
     $$  $$ $$  $$ $$  $$                      05/15/00
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     $$  $$ "TssT" "TssT"

	i was having dinner and had come back to hong kong for a visit.
 apparently china had came to a decision and he was to be executed along
 with five other of his "gang".  he was executed 15 minutes after the case
 was closed.  as he was escorted out, he looked over to his father-in-law
 and nodded, handed an envelope to his lawyer, and off he went to the van
 that awaited him out back.  this happened at 11:30am, apparently he was
 then shot at 11:48am.  although, the official news of the case was not
 disclosed until 11:30pm that night.  whether he was really shot is unknown.
 his body was not given back, and the family were not allowed to go near
 the site of where he was shot.

	Cheung Tze-keung, AKA Big Spender, was the richest man in Hong
 Kong or so i have been told.  he is hong kong's equivalent to america's
 bonnie and clyde.  what makes this story incredible is the fact that the
 crimes were done in hong kong.  he was tricked into crossing the border
 after 1997 (after the hand-over) and captured by the chinese officials. 
 and, with hong kong now belonging to china, even though hong kong is the
 S.A.R. (special administrative region) with its own laws, china had
 overrode the laws that hong kong had just to catch him and execute him.

 	read the following article about it.

 [------]

              By DAVID LAGUE, Herald Correspondent in Hong Kong

	A sensational trial in China of a crime boss who was paid ransom
 worth $US200 million ($340 million) after kidnapping two tycoons in Hong
 Kong has raised serious fears for the independence of the former British
 colony. Legal experts and pro-democracy lawmakers have condemned Hong
 Kong authorities for failing to seek the extradition from China of Cheung
 Tze-keung, alias Big Spender, and his accomplices to face trial in local
 courts for kidnapping, smuggling explosives and other serious alleged
 offenses they believe fall mainly outside the mainland's jurisdiction.
 They warn that there is now a dangerous precedent for mainland courts
 trying offenses allegedly committed in Hong Kong even before the handover
 to China on July 1 last year.
	The Hong Kong authorities, in turn, have attacked two of the
 city's highest-profile families for refusing to report the kidnappings of
 the property baron Mr Walter Kwok Ping-sheung and the businessman Mr
 Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, the son of a local magnate, Mr Li Ka-shing.
	The Hong Kong authorities have insisted they were powerless to act
 on extradition without evidence and argue that Cheung and his gang were
 being tried for offenses allegedly committed on the mainland.
	Cheung and several of his gang face execution if convicted in
 China. The Democratic Party chairman, Mr Martin Lee Chu-ming, has warned
 that the "one country - two systems" formula that guarantees Hong Kong's
 autonomy would be at risk if local and mainland authorities could not
 agree on a system of extraditing suspected offenders.
	He called on the Government to begin urgent talks with Beijing to
 solve the problem.
	"Until there is an acceptable arrangement governing the rendition
 of offenders between Hong Kong and mainland China, "one country - two
 systems' cannot be administered," he told local government radio.
	However, the outspoken Hong Kong barrister Mr Kevin Egan agreed
 that it was difficult for the Hong Kong authorities to take action
 without a complaint from the kidnap victims.
	He believed that Hong Kong police would be happy to see Cheung
 convicted in China where he would be executed with a shot to the back of
 the head. "The police won't mind," he said. "There won't be a problem
 with recidivism after the verdict, will there?"
	In an extraordinary trial now under way across the border from
 Hong Kong in the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, Cheung has
 reportedly admitted that Mr Li Ka-shing paid $US134 million for the
 release of his son in 1996 and Mr Kwok's family $US77 million for the
 businessman's freedom in September last year.
	The court has heard evidence of a cross-border crime spree with
 Cheung, 44, known as Big Spender, for his flashy lifestyle, gambling and
 generosity to associates and friends, leading his gang back and forward
 between the mainland and Hong Kong before his arrest on the mainland
 earlier this year. Cheung and 35 others are on trial with the two
 kidnappings and the smuggling of 800 kilograms of explosives and
 detonators across the border into Hong Kong in January the major offences
 alleged against the crime boss.

 [------]

	now, some believe that Li Ka-Shing had something to do with the
 capturing of big spender, as he has connections with the chinese officials.
 others believe one of his gang members had ratted him out.  he's considered
 a hero in hong kong mainly because he was unfairly treated.  he should have
 gone to trial in hong kong, as the crimes he was being accused of were
 done in hong kong.  though, if he had been tried in hong kong, he would
 still be alive right now, sitting in a jail cell.  the fact that china
 had overrode the laws of hong kong pissed lots of local people off.  
 
	china came out after the case was closed and said, "this is a
 perfect example of how hong kong and china will be able to work as one".
 it's unknown if he was really shot, though, his wife went ahead and put a
 small tombstone somewhere in hong kong.  there are talks about big
 spender being alive somewhere in china, as he probably paid the chinese
 officials to be free.  there are two movies out about him, one before he
 was shot and the other after.

	about 4 months ago, one of the judges that was on the panel that
 sentenced the big spender to execution was "accidently" killed.  the judge
 was sitting in the back middle seat of a car and a truck filled with big
 tree logs had bumped into the car and sent one of the tree logs to smash
 into the car, hitting the judge directly to the head and killing him
 instantly.  the other passengers in the car survived with no damage.
 go figure who did it.

	i know he's alive.  i can feel him alive.  he can't be dead.
 i just won't allow it.  his brilliance lives through me.

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 [ (c) HOE E'ZINE -- http://www.hoe.nu      HOE #1077, BY DINKEE - 5/15/00 ]