Five men found guilty in the kidnapping of a drug kingpin, and of holding him for $1.3 million in ransom, have lost appeals for their convictions.
In April 2010, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies found Yat Fung Albert Tse, Nhan Trong Ly, Daniel Luis Soux, Viet Bac Nguyen and Myles Alexander Vandrick guilty of the kidnapping, unlawful confinement and extortion of Peter Li, his wife and a friend of Li in 2006.
Huong Dac Doan was found not guilty of kidnapping, but guilty of unlawful confinement and extortion.
Li, his wife, Jennifer Pan, and his friend, Xiao Cheng, were snatched from Li's Burnaby apartment and held in a Richmond home for 25 days.
Li, who is serving 13 years in prison for drug trafficking, and Cheng were repeatedly beaten and Tasered.
The drug kingpin arranged for $1.3 million in ransom to be paid in money drops in Vancouver, Toronto and China, believed to be the largest ransom ever in Canada.
The victims were released on the promise of a further $1.7 million. None of the ransom money has ever been recovered.
Tse, Doan, Ly, Soux and Nguyen all launched appeals of their convictions. Van-drick has not appealed.
Tse and Nguyen were seen to be the ringleaders of the kidnapping.
In his appeal, Tse claimed that the trial judge had made a number of errors, including a finding that the evidence of unlawful confinement is legally connected to the offence of kidnapping, and in his assessment of the credibility of the accused and the three victims.
But in rulings released Tuesday, a three-member panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals of Tse and the four other men who appealed their convictions.
In a 50-page ruling for Tse, the court found that Davies had made no mistakes as claimed by the accused.
The judgment was signed by Madam Justice Mary Saunders, Madam Justice Mary Kirkpatrick and Madam Justice Nicole Garson.
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