No case for halting stock-fraud trial, higher court rules
The wife of jailed Shanghai tycoon Chau Ching-ngai, who is on trial for manipulating shares in her husband's company, suffered her second setback yesterday when a court refused her leave to challenge the trial judge's rejection of her case for halting the prosecution.
On Tuesday, District Court judge Alan Wright rejected the application by Mo Yuk-ping and her secretary and co-accused, Chung Sau-ling, for a permanent stay of proceedings. Yesterday Mr Justice Michael Hartmann of the Court of First Instance refused Mo a judicial review of Judge Wright's ruling.
Mo had sought the quashing of Judge Wright's decision and a court order to bar him from continuing the trial.
Judge Wright ruled that the ICAC's destruction of tapes of phone taps of Mo's conversations had not deprived her of a fair trial. He also said the ICAC practice of destroying phone-tap materials was lawful, but declined to rule whether the phone-tapping law was constitutional.
Mr Justice Hartmann said Mo's application 'was not an exceptional case to bring about an adjournment' of the criminal proceedings. But he noted there was a prima facie case in the application because the dispute over the constitutionality of the phone-tapping law was of public importance.
