Elderly ex-DH loses asylum bid, gets suspended jail term

Entrance to the Shatin court building,

 A septuagenarian who overstayed for nearly a month in Hong Kong has been sentenced to two weeks in jail, suspended for three years, after failing to gain asylum here.

Modesta Cerdana, 70, received a lenient sentence on Nov 3 from Shatin Magistrate Andrew Ma, who said the former domestic helper should have been jailed for repeating an offense for which she was convicted 20 years ago.

The magistrate gave Cerdana, who was unrepresented by a lawyer, extra time to make up her mind after she pleaded not guilty to the charge of breaching her condition of stay for overstaying. 

The prosecution charged that the woman, who arrived in Hong Kong as a tourist and was allowed to stay until Aug 23, overstayed her visa and surrendered to the Immigration Department on Sept 20.  “You surrendered to the Immigration authorities on Sept 20 for overstaying, but now you pleaded not guilty. Why, what’s your reason?” Magistrate Ma asked.

“When I surrendered I told Immigration that I can’t go home. My life is threatened because I testified against a school principal,” Cerdana said.

The prosecutor told Ma that Cerdana had applied for asylum, on the ground that she faces torture if sent home, but the immigration officer who handled her case said her application could not meet the minimum criteria.

Ma gave the woman 30 minutes to think over her plea, then called her back to the dock.

“When you were outside the courtroom you were talking to another person. Who was that person?” the magistrate asked. 

Cerdana pointed to the male interpreter and the magistrate asked the man to come nearer.

Ma asked if he was new on the job and cautioned him not to talk to a litigant outside the courtroom, then let him go.

The magistrate then asked Cerdana what her plea was this time and she replied “guilty.”

The prosecutor told Ma the woman had a previous, similar conviction for overstaying 20 years ago when she first came to Hong Kong as a domestic worker.

Ma asked Cerdana if she could say anything in mitigation and she repeated her claim of a threat back home that forced her to return to Hong Kong.

“Usually I should send you directly to jail for repeating the offense after 20 years, but I am giving you another chance,” said the magistrate, then meted the woman a two-week sentence which would put her in jail only if she commits a crime within the next three years.