Top Hong Kong court concerned over former No 2 Rafael Hui’s 1,000-page appeal

The city’s top court is questioning whether parties involved in former government No 2 Rafael Hui Si-yan’s final appeal against his misconduct conviction should “burden” the judges with nearly a thousand pages of supporting documents.

The papers include details about two development projects in which the official had played a role.

In a session dealing with procedural matters on Wednesday, Court of Final Appeal Registrar Simon Kwang Cheok-weung asserted that the top judges would only examine the relevant point of law – whether the former chief secretary’s “favourable disposition” to property tycoon Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong was a strong enough criminal element by the standards of bribery law.

Kwang urged the four defendants and the justice department to reconsider whether the documents were all necessary at the two-day hearing scheduled for May 9.

“[The judges] don’t have the luxury of being able to go through all of these documents,” he said, noting that lawyers representing Kwok, former co-chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, had planned to submit sets of documents relating to the Ma Wan development and the West Kowloon Cultural District project.

“[The inclusion of] documents not to be referred to at the hearing will not add value but only serves to confuse [the issue],” Kwang said.