Secretary of Justice warns of trial by media if applications expedited to review decision not to prosecute former leader CY Leung over payment saga

Barrister says efforts to speed up applications through a ‘rolled-up’ hearing could expose some to unnecessary prejudice

Reading Time:2 minutes

Kwok Cheuk-kin at High Court in 2017. Kwok has applied to review the Department of Justice’s decision to not prosecute former chief executive CY Leung. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 9:28pm, 3 Apr 2019Updated: 10:46pm, 3 Apr 2019

Fears of a trial by media have complicated a judicial review application process for those seeking to re-examine the Hong Kong government’s decision not to prosecute a former city leader, a barrister speaking for the justice secretary said on Wednesday.

Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming on March 13 directed one of the applicants, Tsang Kin-shing, to present his leave and substantive arguments in one go in a bid to expedite the application process. This was a departure from the usual two-step procedure: first proving the case to be arguable in a leave hearing, before presenting full arguments in a substantive hearing.

But Chow on Wednesday changed his mind after Jenkin Suen, on behalf of Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, voiced objections and countered the department would seek to strike the case if the court insisted on a rolled-up hearing.

Tsang must now go through a leave hearing with Kwok Cheuk-kin, another applicant for the judicial review, in High Court no sooner than July.

The applications were submitted after the justice department announced last December it would not prosecute former chief executive Leung Chun-ying. Leung was accused of a conflict of interest for failing to disclose a HK$50 million (US$63.6 million) payment he received from Australian engineering firm UGL before and after he became the city’s leader in 2012.

The money invo lved was from an agreement that Leung, as director of property company DTZ, made with UGL during the Australian firm’s acquisition of DTZ in 2011.

Tsang and Kwok want a review of the decision not to prosecute Leung and lawyer Holden Chow Ho-ding, who was accused of attempting to alter the investigation into the scandal.

Tsang’s chief argument has been that Cheng had misunderstood her own prosecution policy. He also argued she had “fettered discretion” on when to brief out cases and erred by misunderstanding the elements of the misconduct offence.