Hong Kong student charged with possessing petrol bombs claims officer 'set him up'

A Hong Kong student who was charged with possessing petrol bombs near a police station last year on October 27 has claimed that he was ‘framed’ by an officer, who planted the bomb on him so he could make the fake detention. Defendant Lam Wai-ho’s attorney argued in the West Kowloon Court on Thursday that the officer had hired somebody to create a crime scene outside Kwai Chung Police Station on April 13 to coerce the arrest in the alleged Hong Kong bomb plot against the student, a report carried by South China Morning Post has confirmed. The Kwai Chung station sergeant had asked a middleman to bring the petrol bombs, and as the case was heard in the court, he was suspected of perverting the course of justice. 

While prosecutors on Wednesday stated that the 23-year-old student, Lam, from the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education carried the petrol bombs himself to launch an attack on the police station, the latter denied that he was in possession of any such weapons. His lawyer, Albert Luk Wai-hung, argued that the defendant was set up viciously by the cop who arrested him, who also, later on, fabricated the charges. Lam alleged that the said officer along with other three more officers arrested him knowing that there were firebombs planted in his bag. 

Lam argues he was offered US$643 to carry the 'bottles' 

The latter was detained when the officers, patrolling outside Kwai Ching House, deliberately intercepted the student at around 8.50 pm late evening. The accused stated that he was given the bottles by an unknown third party, a man with tattoos on his arms, who offered him HK$5,000 (US$643) to carry them to the estate. They were supposed to be collected by somebody else. Lam argued that the said man did not disclose the identity or details about the person who was eventually going to collect the bottles from him.

The 38-year-old sergeant was later held for questioning by the New Territories North Regional Crime Unit and was suspended from his duties. While he was not officially charged, the court informed that he had recently resumed work at the police department. An investigator, Detective Constable Yiu Ka-Yui, probing Lam’s case has argued that the man with a tattoo has told the police that Lam knew how to produce petrol bombs, and had in fact hired him.