Ex-triad leader jailed for life in Hong Kong over brutal killing outside hotel of senior gangster from rival group

A former triad leader has been jailed for life in Hong Kong for orchestrating the killing of a senior member of a rival gang more than 14 years ago.

Madam Justice Judianna Barnes said society would not tolerate serious violence against an unarmed resident regardless of the assailant’s motives.

Alleged mastermind behind murder of triad leader ‘left Hong Kong to create alibi’

She jailed Leung for life – the mandatory sentence for murder in Hong Kong – after his lawyers decided not to advance any plea for mitigation.

Prosecutors alleged that Leung, then a senior member of the Wo Shing Wo triad group, masterminded the fatal attack on Lee, of the rival Sun Yee On gang, on the forecourt of the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui in the early hours of August 4, 2009.

They said Leung had a grudge against Lee over a 2006 brawl between the two rival groups at a bar in Tsim Sha Tsui East. The fight left the defendant with a scar down the right side of his face and throat.

Leung, nicknamed “Tattooed Chung”, left for mainland China about 55 hours before the 2009 attack but returned to Hong Kong by illegal means to make sure the plan was carried out smoothly.

Lee was knocked down by a seven-seater car and hacked to death by three knife-wielding men on the hotel’s doorstep.

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Leung then sneaked back to the mainland and lay low for more than a decade before illegally entering the city again to turn himself in.

The prosecution suggested the former triad leader had arranged for illegal passage via speedboat to create an alibi for use at his trial.

The other two knifemen remain at large.