Kevin Egan out on HK$1m bail
Jailed barrister Kevin Egan looked refreshed and relieved yesterday after being released on HK$1 million bail following six weeks behind bars.
Dressed in a fresh suit and accompanied by his solicitor, Egan - who on June 16 received a 21/2-year sentence for attempting to disclose the identity of a person in the ICAC witness protection programme - refused to talk to the media as he emerged from the High Court building in Admiralty.
'No quotes to the press,' said his solicitor, Kevin Steel, after his client had climbed into a waiting taxi with two friends.
Egan was released pending his appeal on payment of HK$1 million bail and a promise to pay a further HK$500,000 should he fail to fulfil the terms of the order.
He also had to give up his travel documents.
Egan has already filed his grounds for appeal, but it was understood that some of his fellow accused had yet to file theirs.
The prominent 59-year-old barrister was jailed along with three others for his involvement in what the prosecution had described as an orchestrated media and judicial campaign to gain access to a protected witness.
Egan was found to have attempted to disclose the identity of the witness to then South China Morning Post reporter Magdalen Chow Yin-ling, who testified under immunity from prosecution at his trial. Also convicted was solicitor Andrew Lam Ping-cheung, 54, who was jailed for four years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, a charge on which Egan was acquitted.
Businessman Derek Wong Chong-kwong, 38, was jailed for three years on the conspiracy charge, and his lover, Mandy Chui Man-si, 26, received a 21/2-year sentence on the same charge. Chui was also handed a 12-month term for attempted perjury, to run concurrently.
