A row within the Department of Justice was the reason a senior public prosecutor deleted documents relevant to a criminal case, which prompted a series of appeals to end the prosecution, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Kelly Cheng Kit-yin, former vice-chairwoman of Hong Kong-listed Yueshou Environmental, her daughter Carmen Cheng Wei-ming, and Ip Kin-man, a former director of the firm, had asked the Court of First Instance to review a District Court's refusal to grant a permanent stay of prosecution against them on the basis that deletion of the files meant they would not have a fair trial.
Kelly Cheng, 57, Carmen Cheng, 37, and three other directors including Ip are charged with conspiracy to defraud various banks for the issue of letters of credit and of money laundering.
Dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Frank Stock said he accepted that Gavin Shiu, senior assistant director of public prosecutions, deleted the files because he was at odds with his superiors.
Shiu's superiors at the time included former director of public prosecutions Kevin Zervos and Deputy DPP Wesley Wong.
According to the judgment, Shiu deleted the files from the Department of Justice document management system after the defendants filed an application for a stay of prosecution.