The ICAC has transferred to the Department of Justice evidence files relating to its investigation into a breach of the Witness Protection Ordinance. The investigation involved controversial raids on seven newspaper offices, and the arrests of two lawyers and four others last month. Sources told the South China Morning Post the Independent Commission Against Corruption was seeking legal advice from the Department of Justice on how to proceed with the cases based on the evidence gathered. A department spokeswoman said she could not comment on individual cases, and it was a matter purely between the two bodies. A spokeswoman for the ICAC said it was standard practice to pass on evidence files to the department to seek legal advice once investigations were completed. The move coincides with the anti-graft body's appeal against a High Court decision in favour of Sing Tao Daily, which begins today. High Court judge Justice Michael Hartmann ruled the ICAC should have used less heavy-handed means to gain the newspaper's co-operation. Criminal lawyers Kevin Egan and Andrew Lam Ping-cheung were among those arrested in late July and told they could face charges of perjury, conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice, and violating the Witness Protection Ordinance. Seven newspapers were also raided in relation to reports revealing the name of a woman under the witness protection programme.