 |
| Store where one of two thefts took place (Photo: Google Maps) |
A Filipina asylum seeker originally arrested for shoplifting was jailed for three months and fined $500 after three of her four cases were resolved today at Eastern Court.
Joan Aguli, 44 years old, was kept in jail despite having been in remand for six months because her remaining case -- breach of condition stay, for overstaying since Sept. 6, 2022 -- was adjourned to Feb. 25 next year to await a ruling on her claim for non-refoulement.
“I hope you are a genuine victim of the political situation” in the Philippines, Principal Magistrate Don So told her after her defense lawyer said she was appealing at the Torture Claims Appeal Board the rejection of her claim by the Immigration Department.
Aguli’s case began when she was arrested after a routine check on June 27, when she was found to have overstayed for more than two years, having remained in Hong Kong after her work contract expired on Sept. 6, 2022, when she was required to leave.
While she was being investigated at the Wanchai Police Station later that day, a plastic bag containing 0.7 gram of methamphetamine hydrochloride (also known as ice or shabu) was found in her possession, resulting in her detention since then.
After the case was filed in court, police found that Aguli had also stolen 24 packs of chocolates last April 28 from a Wellcome Supermarket branch on Hennessy Road in Wanchai.
Further investigation also revealed another case of theft when she stole 49 packs of chocolate and three packs of sausages at a Market Place store on Jardine’s Bazaar in Causeway Bay last June 21.
Magistrate So sentenced her to three months for each of the theft charges, to be served at the same time, and imposed a fine of $500 for drug possession after her lawyer said she was using the drugs because of depression.
He set aside the prosecutor’s demand that she pay some $3,000 for the goods she stole, saying Aguli had no means to do so.
Aguli has had four criminal convictions in the past, the prosecutor said.
