Exclusive: Father of man in Taiwan murder that led to Hong Kong protests: ‘He must take responsibility’
The father of the man accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in a Taiwan hotel in a case that sparked the anti-extradition bill protests that have roiled Hong Kong said his son must take responsibility for his actions, apologizing to the parents of the victim in his first media interview.
“He must face the responsibility for the mistakes he made, to follow the order of heaven and earth,” Chan’s father, who works as a cleaning foreman, told Apple Daily. He also blamed himself for not teaching his son well.
“I’m also a parent. I understand the feeling of losing a child. Regardless of the reasons behind this case, I apologize to [Poon] and her family,” he said.
Hong Kong man Chan Tong-kai allegedly murdered his then 20-year-old girlfriend Amber Poon in a hotel room in Taiwan on February 17, 2018, when the couple was on vacation. Chan was 19 at the time.
Chan returned to Hong Kong and confessed that he murdered Poon, took her money and disposed of her body. But Hong Kong authorities could not press murder charges as they have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Chan could not be extradited to stand trial in Taiwan because there was no extradition agreement between Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chan was eventually charged with money laundering in Hong Kong and was jailed until October last year.
Chan’s case led to the biggest political crisis Hong Kong has seen since the handover to Chinese rule as the government saw the opportunity to propose an amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, arguing that it could fix the loophole by allowing suspects to be extradited to jurisdictions that Hong Kong has no extradition agreement with.
But the proposal was widely seen as a move that would allow Hong Kong people to be sent to stand trial in mainland China and for their assets to be seized, sparking major opposition which eventually led to the protests last June.
Chan’s father said he could not comment on politics and the outcome of the case was “beyond imagination,” adding he has been under a great deal of pressure since Chan is his only child and the only descendent of the family.
He said that he hasn’t asked his son about the details of the case. “I believe he was in a huge shock, so huge that he could not take it.”
Chan is staying in a police safe house and his father said he hadn’t seen him since his release from prison in October.
“I can only tell him that he needs to face this with courage. As a father, I will always support him,” he said. “No matter what mistakes he made, at the end of the day, he is my child. I cannot say that I would forgive. I just want to help him.”
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