Liu Lirong denies prostitution claims [1]
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 10:50. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
LIU Lirong (45) a woman charged with seven counts of trafficking persons in Tonga, keeping a brothel and trading in prostitution gave evidence for the first time on February 1 when she denied the prostitution claimed by the two victims and denied that she received payment for the sexual services.
The trial before Justice Shuster at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court resumed yesterday after a two weeks adjournment, with the accused Liu Lirong as the first witness for the defence.
When Defence counsel Laki Niu asked Lirong why the victims Chun Juan Du and Hong Yu Yang in their evidence had said she forced them to have sex with men in Tonga for money, Lirong answered that this was a lie.
"They said you locked them up at the house at Halaleva when you left so they could not escape?" asked the counsel. Lirong again said this was a lie.
"Hong said when she came to Tonga and stayed with you at the Phoenix you told her there was no money to pay for the accommodation so she had to sleep with the men for money?"
The accused again denied this and said it was a lie. She also denied the victims' evidence that if they did not sleep with the men she would have them thrown into the ocean. She also denied beating Du.
Lirong a Chinese national first came to Tonga in 2001 on a work permit where she had businesses including a restaurant.
Work in Tonga
The accused said she was sick she had a heart problem and returned to China in December 2008. She said while at the hospital she met with Hong and her family who knew she had businesses in Tonga and her parents wanted her to come and work for Lirong in Tonga.
"I said yes but she had no money for visa and tickets so I told her she could come and work at my restaurant doing jobs such as cleaning vegetables and buying groceries. I then helped for her Tongan visa to be processed and agreed to pay for her expenses in which she was to reimburse when she gets her wages in Tonga," she said.
However she confirmed that when Hong arrived in Tonga her restaurant the Green Island had not opened at the time.
"You mean she came to work at a restaurant that was not yet opened?" asked her counsel. Lirong said it was intended that she would work at the restaurant at Tofoa. In regards to Du she did not know her and they only became acquainted through friends in China.
She said Du was the one who approached her and asked questions about Tonga because she knew how to cook Chinese food and she wanted to find work. Du paid her own ticket to come to Tonga, said the accused. The intention was for Du to come and work for her but she left after 20 days when arriving in Tonga because of no work.
She again said it was intended that the women were to start working at the restaurant at Tofoa and it was later that she met a Chinese man who agreed for them to run the Green Island.
Payment
She was then questioned over the victims testimony that the men customers paid her money when they slept with them. Lirong answered no, this was a lie as she never received any payment.
She also denied that she was paid $3,000 by Du in order for her to get her passport back. "I never had Du's passport she had it all the time," she added.
Lirong said she paid for Hong's expenses to come to Tonga that was around $2,300 pa'anga and they agreed that she was to reimburse it from her wages in Tonga. They had signed a document in relation to this agreement.
She said with regards to visas it was only Hong that she arranged for her visitors visa to be changed to a work permit in Tonga, while Du didn't want to change her visitors visa to a work permit.
Lirong's Green Island restaurant opened around September 2009 and Hong worked there for only 20 days, while Du had already left the home where they had lived at Halaleva.
Hong left after her boyfriend came and signed an agreement that he was to pay her remaining debt of around $1,680 within a month to Lirong but he never did.
The accused said she had never wanted Du to come and work at her restaurant Green Island.
The accused who is divorced lives at Fanga and has one daughter in China.
The trial continues on February 2 with Liu Lirong's evidence.