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This was an appeal by Mr Lui against his conviction of conspiracy to accept advantages contrary to common law and the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
A jury had found that, while an agent of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation and British American Tobacco Company (HK) Limited, Mr Lui had accepted bribes in the order of $23 million for ensuring the supply of cigarettes to certain companies. He was subsequently sentenced to 3 years and 8 months imprisonment, and ordered to pay $500,000 in fines, $10 million in restitution and prosecution costs of $11 million. Mr Lui appealed to the Court of Appeal on the basis of an error of law; namely, that the trial judge had wrongly admitted crucial documents into evidence (the "GIL/Pasto" documents).
The trial judge had admitted into evidence certain documents of the companies Giant Island Limited (GIL) and the Pasto Company Limited (Pasto) for the purpose of demonstrating that the payments accepted by Mr Lui had not been properly accounted for. In this decision, the Court of Appeal agreed with Mr Lui's counsel that those documents had been wrongly admitted under s22 of the Evidence Ordinance. The Court of Appeal therefore quashed Mr Lui's conviction.
Note: this decision was overturned by the Court of Final Appeal: Secretary for Justice v Jerry Lui Kin Hong [1999] HKCFA 8; (1999) 2 HKCFAR 510; [2000] 1 HKLRD 92.