2015-03-19    Three Africans acquitted of HK drug trafficking charge   (click to enlarge photos)

On January 21, 2015, a woman and a man from South Africa, a man from Morocco and a man from Tanzania, shared a taxi-van from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Taxi was arranged by a hotel. The four did not previously know each other.

At the HK border crossing, police found a large quantity of drugs in a piece of luggage in the van. No one admitted to be the owner, so all four and their driver were arrested. The driver was later released on bail.

On Wednesday afternoon four of the five were acquitted after DNA testing results indicated their innocence. The Tanzanian man is still in detention. (Update March 20: After a long chat with the Tanzanian man,  I feel there are strong grounds for establishing his innocence. A sixth person (!) farewelled the group of five as they started their taxi journey from Guangzhou and I feel that person is the guilty person).

Yesterday afternoon when I paid a (Providential?) once-every-two-months visit to Chong King Mansion shopping centre, to get items for prisons, one of the above three Africans recognised me, told me the good news, took me to meet the two others, and the four of us had a happy banana milk shake in a G/F shop ....before they continued preparing for their flights (as in planes) from HK last night.

As I type this (HK 9pm), the three are preparing for their midnight flights. May they have a safe flight, and may the coming days and weeks be filled with many happy reunions and times of story-telling with their families (whose anguish these two months has been extreme).

God bless all four of the above Africans, and their families!