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High-flying counsel permitted to join prosecution team in city’s biggest corruption case, after 34-strong defence team absorbs top local namesThe High Court yesterday approved a rare request by the public prosecutions division for a junior British barrister to appear in a Hong Kong court – and take on the biggest corruption case in the city’s history.迷你倉Luke Mably, a high-flying criminal counsel, will be the second London barrister to join the team prosecuting the Kwok brothers and former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan, who, together with two other defendants, have commissioned 34 barristers.The chief High Court judge, Andrew Cheung Kui-nung, said the public interest required “the best team” to handle this “unprecedented” criminal prosecution of a “wholly extraordinary nature”.The prominent British Queen’s Counsel David Perry will be leading the prosecution team. He recently led the prosecution of self-styled fung shui master Peter Chan Chun-chuen.A Treasury Counsel in Britain since 2009, Mably was called to the bar in 1997 and specialises in white-collar crime. He regularly presents the case for the prosecution. Although he has not “taken silk” and become a QC, Treasury Counsel was just as prestigious, if not more so, said Cheung.“The truth, as I see it, is that the criminal prosecution in question is a wholly exceptional one, which justifies the taking of exceptional measures,” said Cheung.“The public interest is served by ensuring that the prosecution is conducted by the best team available.”He pointed out that文件倉the burden on the prosecution in such a complex case involving multiple defendants was “most daunting” and had the prosecution made an application to bring in a second Queen’s Counsel, the court would have been inclined to consider it sympathetically, considering that there were three London silks representing the defendants.The rest of the prosecution team are senior counsel Joseph Tse Wah-yuen and junior counsel Maggie Wong and senior assistant director of Public Prosecutions Winnie Ho.The Bar Association had opposed the application, saying local lawyers should be used. But Director of Public Prosecutions Kevin Zervos countered that the defence had commissioned a long list of local senior counsel such as Lawrence Lok, Graham Harris, Daniel Marash, Gerard McCoy, John Reading, Clive Grossman, Eric Kwok, Simon Westbrook and Selwyn Yu.The case involves multiple charges against former chief secretary Hui, 64; Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairmen Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong, 61, and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, 59; and two others. In March, Hui and the two Kwoks pleaded not guilty in Eastern Court.Raymond Kwok faces two charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and furnishing false information. Thomas Kwok faces two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.A charge of misconduct in public office has recently been added against Hui, who faces eight charges. The substantive trial will be heard next May and is estimated to last 70 court days. The pre-trial review has been scheduled for September 3.存倉