HK government urges jail for popstar Tse
2002-11-10

Category News People Nicholas Tse

HONG KONG - A lawyer for the Hong Kong government urged a magistrate on Friday to send Cantopop star Nicholas Tse to jail for perverting the course of justice.

Magistrate Allan Wyeth ordered Tse last month to do 240 hours of community service after convicting him for letting someone else take the blame for crashing his Ferrari. Tse himself had been behind the wheel at the time.

"The gravity of an offence of this type is such as to require the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment," prosecutor Bernard Ryan told a courtroom packed with reporters and Tse's young female fans.

He described the sentence as "manifestly inadequate and wrong in principle," adding that jail was appropriate unless abnormal and exceptional circumstances could be shown to exist.

"Here we submit that there were none," he said, asking for a sentence review and adding that Tse, 22, had shown no remorse.

Scores of fans and bystanders waited outside the courthouse for hours on Friday morning to catch a glimpse of Tse, who turned up in a dark suit and sunglasses and was impassive throughout.

Tse's lawyer Cheng Huan said the government should not second guess its courts. He said Tse had shown remorse and that the community service order was "correct and just."

Teenage girls burst into tears on hearing of Tse's conviction in early October and were delirious when he was spared from jail.

The government has also asked the court to review and increase the sentence of policeman Lau Chi-wai, who handled the crash report and was convicted on the same charge as Tse.

Lau was sentenced to six months in jail. Both men had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The magistrate said he would announce his decision on November 18. Reuters