FOR the first time, the Crown yesterday appealed against a High Court order to release a man wanted to stand trial in the United States on drugs charges involving US$200 million (HK$1.55 billion) worth of heroin.
Cho Ming-lok, 46, was freed in August when Mr Justice Sears granted a writ of habeas corpus, after finding there was insufficient evidence against him on a charge of conspiring to traffic 70 kilograms of heroin between October 1990 and January 1991.
But yesterday, the Court of Appeal, after hearing from Legal Department consultant Mr Graham Harris, appearing for the US Government, the evidence to be given by a US drug enforcement agent, held there was evidence and allowed the Crown's cross-appeal.
However, Cho left the territory shortly after being released because there is no provision in Hongkong for releasing on bail someone freed by habeas corpus, as there is in England.
Usually, if a person wanted in another jurisdiction is released in this way, he is re-arrested outside court.
In this case, because the judge found there was insufficient evidence, it could have been contempt to have re-arrested Cho without further evidence. This was therefore the Crown's first appeal against a habeas corpus decision in an extradition case.
Another man jointly charged with conspiring with Cho, who had also been freed on this count by Mr Justice Sears, had the charge against him resurrected yesterday, when his counsel conceded there was sufficient evidence against him.