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Cliff Buddle

The Chief Executive helped an attempt to conceal the fact that a US government request for the return of a fugitive cited crimes for which he could not be extradited from Hong Kong, a judge heard yesterday.

 Former company chairman Robert Cosby, 69, is wanted in America for money laundering.

 But a document authorising extradition proceedings, signed by the Chief Executive, states that the alleged crime concerned is conspiracy to defraud.

 Michael Blanchflower, for the US Government, said Cosby could not be extradited for money laundering because, at the time of the alleged offence in 1993, there was no law against it in Hong Kong.

 If the Chief Executive had entered money laundering on the authorisation document, the extradition would have been 'doomed to fail', Mr Blanchflower said.

 But he said it was the conduct of the suspect that was important in extradition proceedings, not the charge he would face in the country where he would be tried.

 It was valid for a different offence, arising from material provided on the case, to be entered on the authorisation document, Mr Blanchflower said.

 Adrian Bell, for Cosby, said: 'I confess to being astonished to hear . . . that the purpose of framing the authorisation to proceed in this way was to attempt to disguise or get around the fact that the American Government is seeking to extradite Mr Cosby in respect of an offence for which he cannot be extradited.'  Mr Bell said Cosby would not be put on trial for conspiracy to defraud in the US because it was too late under American time-limitation laws.

 Mr Justice Frank Stock ruled at the Court of First Instance that the case had sufficient merit to proceed to a full hearing.

 He said Cosby's argument included a claim that the authorisation had been 'deliberately framed in a way to circumvent the spirit of the legislation'.

 Cosby, former president of Softpoint, is seeking Tung Chee-hwa's authorisation for the extradition proceedings to be quashed and to be released from Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.



Tung 'joined bid to cover up invalid extradition request'