TNAG-2654-FCO40-3847-Extradition-cases-from-the-UK-and-France-to-Hong-Kong-Lorrai-1992 — Page 159

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that there was a close relationship between Mr. George Than and

the Minister of Finance in 1983. In addition it is possible to

argue that an inference can be drawn from the documents that

some loans were made to the Carrian Group with the knowledge of

the Minister of Finance. However there is no evidence that

those who were responsible for taking the decision to seek

extradition of Mr. Osman were, at any material time prior to the

committal order being made, in possession of or aware of the

existence of these documents, or, if they were, regarded the

documents as being inconsistent with Mr. Osman's guilt or were

not pursuing the prosecution of Mr. Osman in good faith.

Reliance is also placed on the fact that after Mr. Jalil's

murder possession was taken of Mr. Jalil's diaries. However,

if this is correct, the same comment can be made with regard to

the diaries as has been made in relation to the other Jalil

documents.

Next, reliance is placed on the fact that in the course of

of the trial of Mr. Mak Foon Than ("Mak") for the murder of

Jalil (of which he was found guilty) it became apparent that one

statement made by Mr. Mak was not produced in evidence and other

statements made by him, which were produced in evidence, were

edited. An edifice was erected on this to try and support a

suggestion that the reason for the non-disclosure was that the

statements contained highly sensitive material relating to the

involvement of the former Minister of Finance of Malaysia.

court examined the statement which was not in evidence at the

trial of Mr. Mak and the unexpurgated copies of the other

statements.

The

They did not support this suggestion. The

explanation for what had happened at the trial put forward by

Mr. Grant on behalf of the Government of Hong Kong was that the

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