Henfrey Tin Sau-kwong, an associate of sacked ICAC boss Alex Tsui Ka-kit, yesterday admitted plotting with triads to stop a vital prosecution witness testifying in a multi-billion-dollar smuggling trial.
The conspiracy took place in the months leading to the murder of the witness.
Tin, 46, a former Customs officer, pleaded guilty to pressuring Tommy Chui To-yan to retract statements he had made to the Independent Commission Against Corruption about an alleged $8.5 billion cigarette-smuggling and corruption syndicate.
A last-minute plea bargain, sealed after nine days of intense negotiations, led to the prosecution dropping a charge of conspiring to murder Chui, who was killed in Singapore.
But Tin admitted plotting to pervert the course of justice between March 1, 1994 and April 1, 1995 by preventing Chui from helping the ICAC or being a witness in the trial.
The period covered by the charge includes the date when Chui was murdered and the time legislators quizzed Tin about his relationship with Mr Tsui, the sacked ICAC deputy director of operations.