Former Hong Kong Leader Is Charged With Misconduct
By ALAN WONG

HONG KONG — Donald Tsang, a former leader of Hong Kong, has been charged with two counts of misconduct in public office, the city’s anticorruption agency announced on Monday.

The prosecution of Mr. Tsang, the highest-ranking official ever to face a corruption trial in this former British colony, once again brought attention to the cozy ties between top government officials and wealthy businessmen.

The charges against Mr. Tsang concern a luxury apartment he leased in the neighboring Chinese city of Shenzhen from the Chinese property developer Wong Cho-bau. Mr. Wong’s company Wave Media Limited was applying for a broadcasting license that Mr. Tsang’s government approved, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

Mr. Tsang “willfully misconducted himself” by failing to declare the lease negotiations and a related payment of 800,000 renminbi, or $125,900, to a company of Mr. Wong’s, according to the first charge. The second charge says that Mr. Tsang failed to disclose that an architect he nominated for official honors had been hired to redecorate that Shenzhen apartment.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

In a brief statement, Mr. Tsang said that his “conscience is clear” and that he had “every confidence” that the court would prove his innocence. He heard the charges against him at Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Monday afternoon and is set to return to court on Nov. 13.

Mr. Tsang, who will turn 71 on Wednesday, was the second chief executive of Hong Kong since it returned to Chinese rule, serving from 2005 to 2012. Local news outlets have reported that Mr. Tsang received favors from business tycoons, including lavish overseas trips on a private jet. In a statement, the Justice Department said that “there is no sufficient evidence” to justify criminal prosecution over these allegations, without specifying them.

In December, Rafael Hui, Mr. Tsang’s deputy, was convicted of corruption, in a blow to the city’s reputation for clean government. Mr. Hui, who served from 2005 to 2007 as the No. 2 official in Mr. Tsang’s government, was found guilty of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the billionaire property tycoon Thomas Kwok, co-chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Mr. Tsang’s successor, the current chief executive Leung Chun-ying, was accused by political opponents last October of conflicts of interest for accepting payments of $6.4 million from an Australian engineering company while in office. Mr. Leung’s office said that the payments, as part of “a standard non-poach, noncompete arrangement,” were agreed on before his election and has denied wrongdoing.

香港前特首曾蔭權 遭廉署起訴

數天前還在大陸十一慶典上唱國歌的香港前特首曾蔭權，昨突被廉政公署起訴，被控兩項公職人員行為失當罪名，轟動香港。

曾蔭權昨天早上到廉政公署報到後，獲准保釋，下午兩點半到東區裁判法院出庭應訊。香港廉政公署隨即公布，起訴曾蔭權的罪名。

曾蔭權下午在太太陪同下，一臉嚴肅到香港東區裁判法院，案件延至11月13日再審，曾蔭權暫時不需答辯，並獲准以10萬港元保釋。控方申請將案件轉介到高院審理，這起案件未來會傳喚24名證人，當中包括14名政府人員、3名廉署人員及7名市民，有四千頁文件證物。

離開法庭時，面對大批記者，曾蔭權說，「過去三年半，全面配合廉署調查，問心無愧」，深信法庭會還他一個清白。

曾蔭權的太太曾鮑笑薇在法院外說，非常傷心及難過，認識丈夫56年，他腦內只想做好工作，絕對是個正直和忠誠的人，早上到教堂前就工作，45年來的公職工作都克盡己任。夫婦原本想在退休後過平靜及寧靜生活，遠離政治，但可惜事與願違，而被捲入旋渦，最不尋常的是過去三年半，每天都受到不斷滋擾，她也深信法庭最後會還給丈夫一個公道。

曾蔭權2012年離任前數月，被爆涉嫌接受富豪私人飛機和遊艇款待、平租豪宅、外訪時入住頂級總統套房等。他事後多次向公眾道歉，並放棄租住深圳的房屋。廉政公署事後立案調查，香港政府也成立獨立委員會，檢討規管制度。

香港廉政公署昨天說，早前接獲貪汙舉報，調查後揭發涉嫌罪行，指曾蔭權涉嫌違反香港「普通法」，涉及兩項罪名。

廉署首項控罪，指曾蔭權涉嫌2010年11月2日至2012年1月20日間，擔任香港特首時，無合理辯解或理由，故意作出失當行為，在行政會議舉行會議商討及批准雄濤廣播有限公司（其後更名為香港數碼廣播有限公司）提交的多項申請期間，未向行政會議申報或披露，與雄濤一名主要股東就位於深圳東海花園的三聯式住宅物業租賃所進行商議，以及2010年11月向雄濤該名主要股東的公司支付一筆金額80萬元人民幣的相關款項。

第二項控罪指曾蔭權涉嫌2010年12月至2011年7月期間，擔任特首公職期間，當他建議將一名建築師轉交考慮根據香港授勳及嘉獎制度予以提名時，未向當時行政長官辦公室秘書長、發展局和授勳及非官守太平紳士遴選委員會披露或隱瞞他在該物業的租賃，及該名建築師獲聘用負責該單位的室內設計。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/world/asia/donald-tsang-former-hong-kong-chief-executive-misconduct.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20151008/c08hongkong/zh-hant/

2015-10-06．聯合報．A12．兩岸．香港特派員李春