HK top court restores ex-tobacco exec's conviction (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

HK top court restores ex-tobacco exec's conviction
Source: Reuters, Tuesday, 12/14/99

07:40 a.m. Dec 14, 1999 Eastern

HONG KONG, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's highest court on Tuesday
restored the bribery conviction of a former tobacco executive and ordered
an appeal court to hear the case again, the local anti-corruption agency
said.

The case gained world attention in 1996 when Jerry Lui mounted a lengthy
legal battle in the United States against being extradited to Hong Kong.

His lawyers had argued that he faced possible execution if forced to
return to Hong Kong since the British colony was to return to Chinese rule
in mid-1997.

Lui was finally extradited to Hong Kong in May 1997.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement
the Court of Final Appeal had restored Lui's conviction and sent the case
to the Court of Appeal which had earlier acquitted the defendant.

Charged by the ICAC, Lui was convicted in June 1998 for accepting HK$33
million (US$4.24 million) in bribes between June 1988 and December 1993 in
connection with a cigarette smuggling syndicate. He received a jail
sentence of three years and eight months.

But the Court of Appeal overturned the verdict in February this year on
legal technicalities over the admissibility of certain documentary
evidence. He was released the same month.

The ICAC then took the case to the Court of Final Appeal.

``The Court of Final Appeal, being unanimous, allowed the prosecution
appeal and remitted the case to the Court of Appeal to hear the remaining
grounds for Lui's appeal,'' the ICAC said.

A hearing date had yet to be fixed, it added.