Three defendants accused in Hong Kong of misuse of letters of credit (L/Cs), have asked the High Court to grant a permanent stay of proceedings.

The defendants argue that their case should be dropped because a senior prosecutor deleted files relating to their trial.

L/C misuse

Kelly Cheng Kit-yin, her daughter Carmen Cheng Wei-ming and Ip Kin-man, respectively former vice-chairwoman and directors of Yueshou Environmental, were earlier prosecuted for their alleged role in a misuse of L/Cs at the Hong Kong listed company.

They were charged with 11 counts of conspiracy to defraud and two counts of dealing with the proceeds of an indictable offence. Two other company directors also faced the same charges.

Basis of claim

Their application for a permanent stay of proceedings is based on the claim that they could not have a fair trial after a senior assistant director of public prosecutions, Gavin Shiu, ordered his secretary to delete the files from his computer and transfer them to a portable memory stick.

Shiu then lost the files, though he did subsequently find them.

Ruling awaited

A district court has already refused the defendants' application for a permanent stay of proceedings.

The High Court has yet to rule on the defendants' latest application.

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