- Court cleared barrister Dorothy Cheung of conspiring to pervert course of justice after finding her client did not reveal whole truth in trial
- She was accused of trying to get client Ma Ka-kin to take rap for cocaine trafficking in exchange for lighter sentence
A Hong Kong barrister has been acquitted of coaxing her client into pleading guilty to a HK$1.9 million (US$243,000) cocaine trafficking case after it found the latter did not reveal the whole truth in the trial.
The District Court on Friday cleared Dorothy Cheung Hiu-wai of the offence of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice but said she appeared to have breached her professional code of conduct by deliberately disregarding instructions given to her and failing to act in her client’s best interests.
Cheung was accused of trying to get her client Ma Ka-kin to sign a false statement purporting his co-defendant’s innocence in exchange for a lighter sentence in a case involving 1.19kg (2.2lbs) of cocaine.
Ma, a former noodle shop worker, had allowed his colleague Hung Chi-him to use his address for the delivery of a parcel from Brazil in October 2016.
The pair were jointly charged with drug trafficking, but customs officers later dropped the allegation against Hung for unspecified reasons.
Prosecutors said Ma had been asked to lie about the extent of Hung’s involvement and take all the blame himself without knowing his lawyers also represented his colleague in separate proceedings.
The defence took aim at the witness’ credibility and highlighted Ma’s admission during the trial that he would lie to law enforcement officers and even the court if that could give him a lighter sentence.
