A penthouse, yachts and martial arts novels: everything you need to know about Donald Tsang’s bribery trial
An eight-person jury will decide the fate of the former Hong Kong chief executive as they continue their deliberations on Thursday
After 24 days of testimony and lawyers’ speeches, the jury in former Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s bribery trial was finally sent out for deliberation at 1pm on Thursday. It is a case that hinges on a three-storey penthouse on the mainland, its HK$3.8 million renovation, and a businessman who owns both the penthouse and a local radio station. Four men and four women were given the task of determining whether their former chief executive had indeed been, as the prosecutors put it, “hopelessly compromised”.
Seven hours not enough as deliberations to enter a second day in former Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang’s bribery trial
The eight jurors continue their deliberation on Friday after they failed to reach a verdict on Thursday night. Here are some of the things they have to consider:
The law and core allegations
Tsang is charged with accepting an advantage as the chief executive, in breach of Section 4 of the city’s Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
Between 2010 and 2012, he allegedly accepted free renovation work for a penthouse in Shenzhen, where he planned to retire after he stepped down in June, 2012.
In return, the prosecutors say, he became “favourably disposed” to local radio station Wave Media, whose majority owner, Bill Wong Cho-bau, owned the penthouse and also picked up the refurbishment bill.
The penthouse
The three-storey property, measuring 6,700 sq ft, is located in what the prosecutors called the “fashionable” district of Futian.