-7-
documents used by the HK
be allowed to inspect were the
Government in the extradition
department, that the only documents he will
of originals
proceedings (i.e. documents listed in "CHA 2" and "CHA 3") and not those documents "made available" to them as had been stated in BBMB's letters. This
did not take my position much further since these documents had already been produced. In respect of censored documents, from which only extracts had been produced, Mr. Cohen was only allowed to inspect the original of the extracts.
to was suggested Mr Cohen that if he wished to inspect the "CHA documents, it would be necessary to obtain a Court order, which order (Mr Cohen was assured), would be complied with by BBMB. He was also assured by
Na'imah bte Khalid that the "CHA 1" documents would be available for
inspection in the event that the Order was obtained: there was no suggestion
that any of the documents were missing.
It
1"
20.
I instructed Mr Krishnan to apply for an order requiring BBMB to
produce for my inspection the documents listed "CHA 1" and this was granted
by Mr Justice Dato' H J Mohamed Eusoff bin Chin on 20th September 1990 (pages
1-4, "AK 2"). The Court ordered the inspection to commence on 8th October
1990 at 9.30 am.
21.
On 5th October 1990, the last working day before the inspection was
due to start,
BBMB's solicitors served an application to set aside the 20th
September Order. Notwithstanding the fact that my solicitorS had used
precisely the same procedure as the HK Government has used in applying for the 1986 Order, with which BBMB had complied, BBMB now challenged the Court's
jurisdiction to grant my order. BBMB further alleged that I was unable to prove that the documents listed in "CHA 1" were relevant to the proceedings.
This was an extraordinary position. Effectively, BBMB's position was that
those documents were "relevant" to the proceedings for the HK Government's
inspection in 1986 were no longer "relevant" to the proceedings for my
inspection in 1990.
22.
Following a hearing which lasted 1 and 1/2 days the Court on 9th October 1990 dismissed BBMB's application to set aside its earlier order and granted
an extension until 15th October 1990 to enable BBMB to prepare the documents
(pages 16-22 "AK 2").
7