05-07-1991 15:16
071 273 4400
HOME OFFICE C7 DIVISION
P.04
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the most serious kind against the Government of Hong Kong, Mr Bartle and others. To some I have already alluded. They are not however the only ones. I do not propose to set out the remainder. I say only this, that however unwise may have been the procedure on the original laying of the information on 30th November 1985, the issue of the warrant on the same day and the retention of the papers by the I.C.A.C ̊ for six waaks, I see nothing to justify any allegations of dishonesty, abuse of process or impropriety thereafter. Criticisma can, I accept be levelled at shortcomings in the matter of providing documents or information or in failing to correct misapprehensions, but even as to those it must be borne in mind that the applicant's position has so varied from time to time that at any one time the significance of a particular fact or document may not have been apparent". The application was dismissed and on 1 February Mr Osman's petition for leave to appeal to the House of Lords against this judgment was also dismissed.
6. In the fourth application Mr Osman applied, as a preliminary issue, for discovery of numerous documents held by the Hong Kong Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. On 20 June and again on 14 November 1990 the Divisional Court rejected Mr Osman's applications for disclosure of the documents on the grounds that they were irrelevant. The Court also ordered references to nine documents already disclosed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to be struck out on the same grounds.
1.
The substantive argument put forward by Mr Osman in the fourth habeas corpus application was that the accusations against him were not made in good faith or in the interests of justice. The application was refused on 12 December 1990. In so doing, the court declared that the application was an abuse of process and a contravention of statute. They also decided that the lapse of time while Mr Osman has resisted his extradition could not be attributed to the Hong Kong