Hong Kong set to hand over Berlusconi-related evidence

Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung is rushing to transfer evidence to an ongoing trial in Italy, related to the country's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, after a Hong Kong court dismissed attempts to delay handing over the documents.

In a Court of First Instance ruling on Wednesday, Mr Justice Godfrey Lam Wan-ho rejected an application from two Hong Kong women and four Hong Kong companies for a judicial review of the justice secretary's order for documents seized from them to be sent to Italy.

The four companies are: Wiltshire Trading, Harmony Gold, CS Secretaries and Loong Po Management. In October 2011, a Milan court indicted several defendants, including the two women, Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun, for money laundering.

The ongoing case in a criminal court in Milan is related to misappropriation, tax fraud and money laundering.

The rejection of the application for a judicial review was sped up, the judgment said. "Since the criminal trial for which the documents are to be used is currently in progress in Milan, and there is a possibility that the evidentiary phase of those proceedings will end in July, the application has had to be dealt with urgently."

The decision paves the way for the documents to be sent to Italy, unless the applicants appeal.

A lawyer who declined to be named said: "If the applicants appeal again, it is likely their leave to appeal will be quickly rejected, given the urgency of the justice secretary in sending the documents to Italy and the repeated failure of previous appeals."