'Raymond Kwok had no part in Hui deal'
Lawyer says younger brother is ‘not written into the story’ that alleges he was involved in paying former chief secretary HK$8.5 million
A lawyer yesterday sought to distance the younger of the two Kwok brothers charged with bribing former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan from a sum of HK$8.5 million that the elder brother had admitted paying Hui.
John Kelsey-Fry QC, for Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, said the 61-year-old had "nothing to do" with the sum that the prosecution has alleged was a bribe.
A bonus the Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairman had given Hui was, by contrast, the only transparent payment among all allegations, the High Court jury heard.
Fellow co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong earlier told the jury he paid the HK$8.5 million in the run up to Hui's appointment as chief secretary in 2005, pursuant to an oral consultancy agreement he had with Hui.
The two Kwoks are alleged to have bribed Hui with millions of dollars between 2005 and 2007 for him to be the developer's "eyes and ears" in government.
Kelsey-Fry pointed at prosecution diagrams that showed his client was one of the five defendants who knew about the payment.
"Raymond Kwok does not appear anywhere," he said. "He is not written into this story. Only four people know, not five," said Kelsey-Fry, who had remained mostly quiet throughout the trial until he started presenting the closing submission yesterday.
