Former Hong Kong chief secretary Rafael Hui released from prison after serving five years for bribery, misconduct
- The ex-No 2 official found guilty of accepting nearly HK$20 million following high profile corruption trial in 2014
- He is released early from Stanley Prison on Wednesday morning for good behaviour
A former Hong Kong No 2 official jailed for pocketing nearly HK$20 million from a prominent land developer was released on Wednesday after spending five years behind bars.
He was seen smiling but did not speak to the media gathered outside when he left the prison at about 9.15am, accompanied by an entourage who led him to a black seven-seater vehicle carrying both Hong Kong and mainland Chinese number plates.
Hui’s wife Teresa Lo Mei-mei was not there to receive him but he was met by his friend of two decades, Raymond Chin Yuet-ming.
The former top official, who looked significantly thinner than when he was last seen in public, did not respond to questions from journalists about the state of his health and emotions.
Hui, 71, was sentenced in 2014 – along with two middlemen and one of the city’s richest property tycoons – after a 131-day corruption trial in one of the most high profile cases since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Hui was originally handed 7½ years in prison after the court found him guilty of accepting HK$19.6 million (US$2.51 million) from prominent developer Sun Hung Kai Properties, offered by its former co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and two middlemen, ex-SHKP executive director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen and Francis Kwan Hung-sang, a former stock exchange official.
Chan, who was released from jail early last year because to his ailing health, died on Tuesday.
