Update | Jury still undecided on only one charge in Rafael Hui, Kwoks graft trial
The jury in the city’s highest-level graft trial continued deliberations this morning, after a deadlock over one corruption charge involving the biggest alleged bribe and all five defendants.
The jury in the city’s highest-level graft trial continued deliberations this morning, after a deadlock over one corruption charge involving the biggest alleged bribe and all five defendants.
As the court restarted at 9.30am today, Mr Justice Andrew Macrae told lawyers that six jurors had relayed messages to their family members through the court. They included reminders to attend upcoming medical appointments and to stay warm in the cold weather.
After the nine-strong jury appeared again, Macrae repeated his direction for them to pull together individual experience and wisdom in discussion and debates to reach a verdict for Hui, Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairmen Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, as well as SHKP executive director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen and ex-stock exchange official Francis Kwan Hung-sang.
Macrae later told lawyers that, in case the jury could not make up its mind today, “the court doesn’t [take a] break at the weekend”.
The jurors' sticking point is count 7, a charge of conspiracy to offer an advantage to a public servant that, in this case, accuses Sun Hung Kai Properties' two co-chairmen of bribing former chief secretary Hui with more than HK$11 million.
Last night, the nine jurors emerged a fourth time from behind closed doors to tell Mr Justice Andrew Macrae they had not reached a verdict on that count.
"We have focused on one count for much time, but no verdict can be confirmed. We would like to seek further assistance," Macrae read from their note just before 8pm. The jury expressed no difficulty deciding on the other seven charges.
Count 7 alleges property bosses Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen paid Hui, as a non-official Executive Council member in 2007, HK$11.182 million via SHKP executive director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen and former stock exchange official Francis Kwan Hung-sang.
The jurors did not speak in court. Macrae said that if they were not sure about certain evidence or a matter of law, they should submit more notes to seek clarification.
But if the problem was a split vote in which fewer than seven took the side of guilty or not guilty - to which some jurors nodded - further discussion was needed, the judge said.
"There must necessarily be discussion and debate, as a result of which an individual member … may be persuaded to accept a view which he or she did not previously [accept]." Macrae adjourned their session to 9.30am today, making the trial one of the longest in jury deliberations in Hong Kong's legal history.
Hui, 66, faces eight charges related to bribery and misconduct in public office. Thomas Kwok, 63, faces one charge of conspiracy to offer an advantage to Hui and two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. Raymond Kwok, 61, faces four charges, including one with Hui of furnishing false information. Chan, 68, and Kwan, 64, each face two charges. All have pleaded not guilty.
