Bar Association fights appointment of British lawyer in Kwoks case

A decision by the Chief Judge of the High Court allowing a British barrister to join the team prosecuting former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan and the Kwok brothers of Sun Hung Kai Properties is on hold pending an appeal by the Bar Association.

Mr Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung yesterday stayed his judgment that permitted Louis Mably, a non-Queen's Counsel, to join the prosecution team as a second London barrister taking on the most high-profile corruption case in Hong Kong's history.

The association asked for the stay after it filed an appeal against Cheung's judgment in favour of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kevin Zervos, who wanted Mably, a Treasury Counsel who specialises in fraud crime, to join the team led by prominent British Queen's Counsel David Perry.

It is rare for an overseas barrister other than a Queen's Counsel to be admitted as a lawyer in Hong Kong.

The Court of First Instance heard yesterday that the association would argue in the Court of Appeal that Cheung erred in failing to consider whether Hong Kong barristers, without conflict of interest, could do Mably's work.

In allowing the barrister's admission earlier, Cheung said the public interest would be served by ensuring that the "wholly exceptional" prosecution was "conducted by the best team available".

Opposing the stay application yesterday, Zervos said Hui, the Kwoks and two other defendants had commissioned 34 barristers.