Tycoon Joseph Lau wants to be tried in absentia in Macau corruption case

He had already missed three court appearances and tycoon Joseph Lau Luen-hung made it four yesterday, preferring lunch at his favourite restaurant in Wan Chai to Macau's Court of First Instance.

Despite his absence, a judge decided to press ahead with a corruption trial.

Lau's lawyer, Leong Weng-pun, said that Lau wanted to be tried in absentia, without explaining why. Lau had claimed illness on three previous court dates, forcing the judge to postpone the trial.

Presiding judge Mario Augusto Silvestre accepted the lawyer's application as he said he could not be sure Lau was absent for "unreasonable reasons".

Meanwhile, Lau appeared to be living life the way he always does, enjoying a meal at the Fook Lam Moon restaurant with girlfriend Chan Hoi-wan and daughter Josephine. However, another girlfriend, Yvonne Lui Lai-kwan, was present in court, apparently as an observer.

Lau, chairman of Chinese Estates Holdings, and Steven Lo Kit-sing, chairman of BMA Investment and convenor of the South China soccer team, are accused of offering a HK$20 million bribe to Macau's former public works chief, Ao Man-long, in 2005. They are accused of bribing Ao to secure land near the airport for the La Scala luxury residential project.