Lawyers for five alleged senior triad members accused of planning and carrying out a gangland hit went on the offensive Monday, accusing an immunized turncoat of fabricating evidence that helped to bring the case to trial.

Former Wo Shing Wo triad member Lam Ka-chun, believed to be 23 years old, was cross-examined behind a screen on the second day of his testimony.

His testimony started as he fingered five accomplices in the murder of Sun Yee On "Double Flower, Red Pole" (a senior rank) triad member Lee Tai-lung who was run down by a car and then chopped to death on the forecourt of the Kowloon Shangri-La in August 2009.

Lam is one of two Wo Shing Wo defectors present at the attack who will testify in return for immunity from prosecution.

He said Lee Wan-kong drove him and two other lookouts to the scene, whom he identified as Lo Chin-wang and Yeung Man-ting.

They allegedly discussed the murder hours beforehand, with knifeman Lee Chun-kong and Li Yuen-wo, who helped arrange a clandestine speedboat journey to and from the mainland to establish an alibi.

Senior counsel Joseph Tse acting on behalf of Yeung, who allegedly supervised the attack, pointed out details in Lam's testimony were constantly shifting from the time he began cooperating with police after his arrest, through several interviews recorded on video and into his recollection under oath in court.

"After your arrest you must have realized you'd either be a witness or a defendant ... You decided to tell police what you believed they wanted to hear," Tse said.

"But later when police came back and told you parts of what you told them could not be true, you changed your versions," he added, pointing out Lam did not have a line of sight of the attack although he told police he saw Lam sail two or three meters into the air after being struck.

Tse also cited Lam's conflicting accounts of who was in the car with him and where they were seated.

Lam retorted he did not trust police at the onset of his cooperation and thought he had to give them material otherwise they would not help.

He maintained, however, that his statements in court were truthful.

He also said he recognized the accused sitting in the dock, saying he knew them since he joined the Tai Kok Tsui chapter of Wo Shing Wo when he was twelve, although Tse told the court his client had never laid eyes on Lam before.

The court had heard that Lee Tai-lung was the target of a revenge attack hatched by senior Wo Shing Wo member Leung Kwok-chung who had been permanently disfigured in a bar brawl in which the victim was involved three years prior to the murder.

Leung Kwok-chung was still at large.

All five defendants have pleaded not guilty.

China Daily

(HK Edition 01/18/2011 page1)