Ho home after release from US jail

Former home affairs secretary Patrick Ho Chi-ping has returned to Hong Kong following his release from a New York prison after serving a term for corruption.

Ho headed back to Hong Kong via Switzerland after his deportation from the United States with his US visa revoked.

Now 70, Ho served 14 months and 14 days of a three-year prison term handed down by a US district judge, Loretta Preska, on March 25 last year after being convicted of international bribery.

In November 2017, Ho was arrested for bribing top officials of Chad and Uganda - Chad's president, Idriss Deby, and Ugandan foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa - in acting for the Shanghai-based conglomerate CEFC China Energy Co, with which he worked.

After being released from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York on Monday, Ho took a Swiss Airlines flight to arrive in Hong Kong at around 7am yesterday.

He also went through the compulsory test for coronavirus at AsiaWorld-Expo.

He then headed in a silver-colored car to his residence at Estoril Court in Mid-levels, where he will be ensconced during a 14-day quarantine stretch, but his test result was negative.

In all, Ho had been detained in the United States for two years and seven months since his arrest in November 2017.

He was also fined US$400,000 (HK$3.11 million) after being convicted on four counts of violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of international money laundering and two counts of conspiracy.

Ho was a well-known ophthalmologist in Hong Kong and served as home affairs secretary between 2002 and 2007.

But his name is not now on the Medical Council's list of registered practitioners.

"A doctor who has been convicted in or outside Hong Kong of an offence punishable with imprisonment ... is required to report the matter to the council within 28 days from the conviction," according to council's code of professional conduct. "Failure to report within the specified time will in itself be grounds for disciplinary action."

Yet Ho's Chinese name remains on the list of appointed justices of the peace. He was appointed on July 1, 1999.

According to the Justices of the Peace Ordinance, the chief executive can revoke an appointment if a JP has been convicted in Hong Kong or anywhere else of an offense and sentenced to imprisonment "whether suspended or not."

In 2007, Ho was given the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest award under the HKSAR honors and awards system.

maisy.mok@singtaonewscorp.com