ExclusiveDonald Tsang 'promised audience with Pope if he sat on Berlusconi fraud evidence'
Close associate of shamed Italian ex-PM claims chief executive’s desire to meet Benedict was subject of proposed trade-off for help with fraud case
Former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen allegedly tried to secure a private audience with the pope in 2008 with the help of a close political associate of disgraced Italian ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
But in return, Tsang's administration was asked to help stop the transfer of evidence seized in Hong Kong to Italian public prosecutors investigating a fraud and money laundering case linked to Berlusconi.
The claims are made by former Italian senator Sergio De Gregorio, who is himself embroiled in a corruption probe after he admitted accepting €3 million (HK$31 million) in bribes from the shamed ex-premier.
Tsang denied knowledge of De Gregorio's claims, and Hong Kong officials said the government would never get involved in a criminal investigation.
De Gregorio said that between 2007 and 2008 he met high-ranking Hong Kong officials in Rome including Duncan Pescod, who was the city's representative to the European Union, and his successor Mary Chow Shuk-ching.
