Donald Tsang would have confided in friend Rafael Hui, graft trial told

Former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen would have confided in Rafael Hui Si-yan before his predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa, resigned in 2005, a High Court graft trial heard yesterday.

Prosecutors made the claim to rebut Hui's testimony that he had not expected Tung's surprise exit, and was not receiving bribes in anticipation of his appointment as chief secretary once Tsang got the top job.

Lead prosecutor David Perry QC said Hui was a good friend of Tsang.

"Tsang would have known what was going to happen. If you [jurors] are Tsang, you'll be trying to field who is going to be the next chief secretary."

Hui would "clearly" have had an idea before Tung's resignation on March 10, 2005, Perry said. Hui's testimony, he held, contrasted with what Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairman Raymond Kwok Ping-luen wrote to the Department of Justice in 2009: "Rafael Hui predicted that Mr C. H. Tung would soon retire."

In his closing submission, Perry continued to rebut SHKP co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong's testimony that there was a covert consultancy deal entitling Hui to HK$30 million for two years' service.