A week after Huo Zhaotang was successfully rescued, a round of proceedings closed to the public slowly got underway at the High Court on Hong Kong Island.
The main subject of today's proceedings was, naturally, Huo Zhaotang's kidnapping.
But the two Gou Hok Jai, Ho Wai-lok and Wong Kwan, were not the central figures in this hearing.
Trying the criminals who had kidnapped Huo Zhaotang was only one part of the hearing.
The other part concerned Ho Wai-lok's lawsuit against Cheung Tak Biu and the other Police Officers of East Kowloon Major Crimes A Group over what he had suffered.
"Everyone, owing to the sensitive nature of the case, today's series of proceedings will be conducted behind closed doors."
Wearing a judicial wig, Chief Justice Au Hin-wai, the presiding judge for these proceedings, slowly struck his gavel.
After a solemn opening procedure, the hearing formally began.
"Mr. Wong Kwan! Mr. Ho Wai-lok!"
A prosecutor from the Department of Justice's Criminal Prosecutions Division fixed a sharp, warning gaze on the defendants' dock.
"Do you plead guilty to kidnapping Mr. Huo Zhaotang?"
The key point of the current closed-door proceedings was the crime Ho Wai-lok and Wong Kwan had committed together in kidnapping Huo Zhaotang.
As long as the two could be convicted, Ho Wai-lok's subsequent lawsuit against Cheung Tak Biu and the other members of the East Kowloon Major Crimes Unit for extrajudicial violence would pose virtually no difficulty to resolve.
"Of course... not!"
Although his hands were cuffed, Wong Kwan looked utterly arrogant.
With a sneer, he drew out his answer and cast a provocative glance at the East Kowloon Regional Headquarters personnel behind the witness stand.
During the arrest operation that night, the presence of other Gou Hok Jai around him had kept him from being subjected to any