South Korean man ‘could have attempted to strangle himself’ a week before death in Hong Kong prison, inquest hears
- Inquest into Kim Min-ho’s death hears testimony from his then fellow detainee Khaw Kim Sun, who was remanded for murdering his wife and child with a gas-filled yoga ball
- Khaw testifies he noticed petechiae on Kim’s face and a mark that resembled an abscess on the left side of his neck, days before the latter died on April 16, 2018
A South Korean businessman who died in a Hong Kong prison while awaiting trial over the 2018 murders of his wife and son “might have attempted to strangle himself” a week before he was found with a knotted bedsheet around his neck.
The observation emerged during the inquest on Thursday into the death of 43-year-old Kim Min-ho, as his then fellow detainee, Malaysian anaesthesiologist Khaw Kim Sun, gave testimony about their final days together at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.
Kim was found unconscious in his single-person cell on April 16, 2018. He was sent to nearby Caritas Medical Centre, where he was certified dead about an hour later.
Khaw was at the time also remanded for murdering his wife and child with a gas-filled yoga ball. He is now serving a life sentence at a different prison.
The Malaysian said he had noticed petechiae, or broken blood vessels, on Kim’s face and a mark that resembled an abscess on the left side of his neck days before the latter’s death, but the Korean attributed the change in his facial complexion to poor sleep and his fellow detainees thought he had been bitten by insects on the neck.
