ASSN
A
B
C
Prison, was invited to deal with only one point of law, and Mr.
Nicholls was asked to deal with one aspect of the facts. That
we were able to hear the argument within this limited period of
time was in no small measure thanks to the co-operation that the
court received from the lawyers appearing on behalf of Mr.
Osman. At the time we gave our directions, it was not known
that there was to be an application for judicial review.
However, although they had to work within a limited timescale,
Mr. Osman's lawyers prepared admirable bundles of documents and
most helpful skeleton arguments. We are most grateful for this
assistance. We are also grateful for the assistance we received
from other parties.
D
E
F
G
H
Facts
The judgments on the previous applications, some of which
have been reported, and in particular the judgment of Lloyd L.J.
on the first application (R. v. Governor of Pentonville Prison,
ex parte Osman [1990] 1 WLR 277), set out in some detail the
facts leading to Mr. Osman's committal by the Chief Metropolitan
Stipendiary Magistrate. Therefore only those facts will be
outlined here which are necessary to understand the issues
involved on both applications.
The case of the Government of Hong Kong is that, between
December 1979 and October 1983, while chairman of a Hong Kong
company, Bumiputra Finance Malaysia Ltd. (B.F.M.L.) which is a
wholly owned subsidiary of a major bank in Malasia, Bank
Bumiputra Malaysia Berhad (B.B.M.B.) Mr. Osman was involved in
offences of conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to steal, bribery,
theft and false accounting. In addition it is alleged that six
corrupt payments of money and one corrupt transfer of shares was
3
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