Hong Kong woman apologizes to Thai people for false rape claim

HONG KONG: -- A Hong Kong woman pardoned last week after being jailed in Thailand for falsely claiming she had been gang-raped has apologized, newspapers reported Sunday.

So Leong-ying served one year and two months of a 1 1/2-year prison term handed down last June. Last week, however, she received a royal pardon and was quickly deported.

"I feel deeply apologetic to Thailand. It was wrong of me to show contempt to the country. I had to pay the price for the mistake I made,'' So was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post following her return to Hong Kong.

So said she was under the influence of drugs when she alleged she was gang-raped by a taxi driver and three other men near Thailand's Parliament in the capital of Bangkok, according to the Post report.

She said Thai prison guards and fellow inmates were friendly and she had a "good experience'' behind bars, the Post reported. Thai prisons are notoriously overcrowded due to a recent spike in drug convictions.

But So faced more trouble after touching down in Hong Kong when local police promptly arrested her for an unpaid fine dating from 2002, police spokesman Edwin Hung said. He had no further details.

The Apple Daily newspaper reported Sunday that police later freed So after an unidentified journalist paid the 1,700 Hong Kong dollar (US$218) littering fine.

--AP 2004-08-15

HONG KONG: -- A Hong Kong woman pardoned last week after being jailed in Thailand for falsely claiming she had been gang-raped has apologized, newspapers reported Sunday.

Piece of shit

Bit of nut-case. I read somewhere upon arrival, at HKG-airport, she was arrested and freed on bail, for littering!

Bit of nut-case. I read somewhere upon arrival, at HKG-airport, she was arrested and freed on bail, for littering!

Terrible crime, littering eh? Danger to the public this one with such a long history of criminal activity behind her.

Let's just hope she wasn't a victim of circumstance here. Don't forget Axel, the doctor who examined her reversed his testimony half way through the investigation and there were a load of other question marks hanging over it. If that ain't more fishy than a jar of pla rah, then I'm a Dutchman.

plachon, I would never take you for a Dutchman

I did not read about the doctor who reversed his testimony, so cannot comment on this.

But, if anything in her case really would have been fishy, we would have heard it by now, once she was safely back in Hong Kong.