CHAN MEI YIU, PADDY AND ANOTHER v. SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE AND OTHERS

CHAN MEI YIU, PADDY AND ANOTHER v. SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE AND OTHERS

Applying a flexible Tweed-style approach, the court inspected the Italian letter of request and its supplementary information and concluded that disclosure was not necessary for justice because the affidavits and available foreign letters of request provided sufficient material to enable the applicants to present their misrepresentation/non-disclosure arguments and that disclosure risked real prejudice to ongoing investigations; accordingly the application for discovery of the letter of request and for disclosure of the informations was refused.

Citation
CHAN MEI YIU, PADDY AND ANOTHER v. SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE AND OTHERS
Parties
1st Applicant (hcal 16/2007): CHAN MEI YIU, PADDY; 2nd Applicant (hcal 16/2007); 1st Applicant (hcal 19/2007): HARMONY GOLD LIMITED; Applicant (hcal 17/2007): WILTSHIRE TRADING LIMITED; 1st Applicant (hcal 18/2007): HSU MAY CHUN, KATHERINE; 2nd Applicant (hcal 19/2007): CS SECRETARIES LIMITED; 3rd Applicant (hcal 19/2007): LOONG PO MANAGMENT LIMITED; 4th Applicant (hcal 19/2007): CHAN MEI YIU, PADDY LIMITED; 1st Respondent: SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE; 2nd Respondent: COMMISSIONER OF POLICE; 3rd Respondent: LEUNG KING HUNG, Detective Senior Inspector; 4th Respondent: A MAGISTRATE SITTING AT EASTERN MAGISTRACY ON 16th JANUARY 2007
Court
Court of First Instance
Jurisdiction
Hong Kong
Judgment Date
28 June 2007
Case Number
HCAL16/2007
Procedural Posture
Judicial Review (constitutional and Administrative Law) / Interlocutory Application for Discovery in Judicial Review Concerning Search Warrants and Mutual Legal Assistance
Outcome
Application for discovery refused; application for disclosure of the informations refused
Legal Topics
Discovery, Search Warrants, Letter of Request, Legal Professional Privilege, Public Interest Immunity, External Serious Offences
Source Language
EN
Mutual Legal Assistance Constitutional Law Criminal Procedure Judicial Review Public Interest Immunity Discovery Search Warrants Letter of Request +2 more

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Parties

CHAN MEI YIU, PADDY

1st Applicant (hcal 16/2007)

HARMONY GOLD LIMITED

2nd Applicant (hcal 16/2007); 1st Applicant (hcal 19/2007)

WILTSHIRE TRADING LIMITED

Applicant (hcal 17/2007)

HSU MAY CHUN, KATHERINE

1st Applicant (hcal 18/2007)

CS SECRETARIES LIMITED

2nd Applicant (hcal 19/2007)

LOONG PO MANAGMENT LIMITED

3rd Applicant (hcal 19/2007)

CHAN MEI YIU, PADDY LIMITED

4th Applicant (hcal 19/2007)

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE

1st Respondent

COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

2nd Respondent

LEUNG KING HUNG, Detective Senior Inspector

3rd Respondent

A MAGISTRATE SITTING AT EASTERN MAGISTRACY ON 16th JANUARY 2007

4th Respondent

Procedural Posture

Judicial Review (constitutional and Administrative Law) / Interlocutory Application for Discovery in Judicial Review Concerning Search Warrants and Mutual Legal Assistance

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Whether the Italian letter of request contained misrepresentations or omissions that affected the magistrate's decision to issue search warrants
  2. 2 Whether there was material non-disclosure in the informations supporting the search warrant applications
  3. 3 Whether the terms of the search warrants were overly wide

Ratio Decidendi

Applying a flexible Tweed-style approach, the court inspected the Italian letter of request and its supplementary information and concluded that disclosure was not necessary for justice because the affidavits and available foreign letters of request provided sufficient material to enable the applicants to present their misrepresentation/non-disclosure arguments and that disclosure risked real prejudice to ongoing investigations; accordingly the application for discovery of the letter of request and for disclosure of the informations was refused.

Court Disposition

Application for discovery refused; application for disclosure of the informations refused

Orders

  • Application for discovery of the Italian letter of request and supplementary documents refused
  • Application for disclosure of the informations in support of the search warrants refused