Witness testimony from senior ICAC officers in a bribery case will be heard behind closed doors so that sensitive information about how the anti-graft body conducts investigations is not revealed, a District Court judge ruled yesterday.
Senior government counsel Ian McWalters SC applied to the court for testimony from two senior ICAC officers - director of investigations Gilbert Chan Tak-shing and a chief investigating officer - to be heard in camera.
Mr McWalters said he was not appealing for the ICAC but for the government because the techniques were used for investigation and detection of serious crimes for the safety of Hong Kong people.
The two witnesses will be called to respond to claims by defence counsel Cheng Huan SC that the Independent Commission Against Corruption destroyed covert recordings of his client's conversations that would have benefited the defence. Defendant Li Man-tak, a former executive director of Kwong Hing International Holdings, is charged with bribery. Mr Cheng has applied to stay the prosecution because he claims the destruction of the tapes prevents his client receiving a fair trial.
Under Section 123 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, criminal proceedings may be held in camera - in private with a judge - if 'it appears to a court that it is necessary so to do in the interests of justice or public order or security'.
District Court Judge Fergal Sweeney granted the application, saying that while it was a fundamental principle of the justice system that all criminal trials be held in the open, in exceptional cases it was necessary to balance it with public-security concerns.
