The Newpaper 22 Dec 2007 Page 18

He's jailed for telling lies to skip jury duty.
He was supposed to be one of the six jurors in a high-profile fraud trial. But on thursday, product manager Ho Kam Wai, 41, became the first juror to be jailed in HK.

His offence- lying to absent himself from the trial.

Magistrate Alan Raymond Wright sentenced Ho to 3 weeks jail. Ho was supposed to do jury duty after the Gold Wo fraud case.

The trial, scheduled to last 32 days, began on 5 Nov. the hearing was adjourned once when Ho applied leave on 9 Nov. however on 19 Nov, Ho left a voice message for the presiding judge's secretary, saying he injured his leg and therefore had to be hospitalised there. at the time, Ho was working in a cotton mill in Jiangmen in GD province.

The judge's secretary then called Ho's secretary, who gave a different version of his wherabouts.

The conflicting reports aroused the judge's suspicion and he ordered the police to investigate Ho's claims. However, the judge granted Ho two weeks' leave from jury duty. Then, on 21 Nov, Ho called the judge's secretary again, saying he could not attend court as his leg was still painful. Not wanting to delay the trial, the judge ordered the hearing to proceed, and removed Ho from the panel of jurors.

Police investigations showed that on 25 Nov, Ho had faxed a letter to the judge, saying he could not return to HK, when he had, in fact, returned to HK the same day. Ho was summoned to court on 3 Dec where he was charged and advised to get legal representation.

etc etc etc etc

Magistrate Wright pointed out that because of Ho's absence, the other five jurors had to work harder on the trial. there was also a risk of the trial being re-heard if new jurors had to be appointed.

He also said that jury duty is an important civic responsibility, and jurors had to have valid reasons to be excused from it.