Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal on Wednesday vacated conviction against the Chinese special administrative region's former Chief Executive Donald Tsang, who has completed his 12-month sentence over an undeclared property deal while in public office, local media reported
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2019) Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal on Wednesday vacated conviction against the Chinese special administrative region's former Chief Executive Donald Tsang, who has completed his 12-month sentence over an undeclared property deal while in public office, local media reported.
Tsang served as chief executive between 2005 and 2012. Back in 2017, he was convicted for failing to inform the Executive Council of Hong Kong about his deal for the lease and renovation of a three-storey apartment in Shenzhen, with a businessman whose company Wave Media was applying for a digital broadcast license for the period between 2010 and 2012.
The prosecution insisted that the undeclared property deal was an element of Tsang's misuse of public office. Initially, Tsang was sentenced to 20 months in prison, but then the term was reduced to 12 months. Tsang has served his sentence and was released in January.
Annulling the conviction, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the trial judge had failed to provide jurors with adequate directions before they found Tsang guilty back in 2017, according to the RTHK broadcaster.
The judges also found that the jury, during the original trial, had not been able to unambiguously conclude whether there had been an element of corruption with Tsang intentionally concealing his deal or the former head of Hong Kong just did not feel the need to report about it.
The court also ruled that there should be no retrial for Tsang.
