CE dispatch stops Edmund Ho from testifying on confidentiality grounds

The Chief Executive Chui Sai On issued a dispatch preventing his predecessor, Edmund Ho, from testifying in a lawsuit that pits Las Vegas Sands against Asian American Entertainment (see text below).
In a confidential dispatch addressed to the Court of First Instance judge presiding over the case, Chui Sai On states that “the facts [that underpin the request to have Edmund Ho as a witness] are of a confidential or reserved nature, and the knowledge of those facts, in case there was such a knowledge, was obtained [by Edmund Ho] whilst performing his duties, hence I don’t authorize the former CE, Dr Ho Hau Wah, to testify.” The dispatch was issued on January 5, 2015. According to the law, the chief executive has the power to prevent the former CE from testifying.
It is at least the second time that Chui Sai On has decided that Edmund Ho, who is now the Vice-Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, should not be called to the witness stand.
In 2010, João Miguel Barros, the legal representative of businessman Pedro Chiang, named Edmund Ho as a witness.
Pedro Chiang fled Macau and his whereabouts remain unknown, although he gave an interview to a newspaper in Lisbon. He was tried and convicted in absentia. Chiang was one of the businessmen charged with bribing former Secretary for Transport and Public Works Ao Man Long, and with assisting him in money laundering and other illegal activities related to the granting of land and public works to contractors through unlawful procedures.
The collective of judges who were trying the case asked João Miguel Barros to address a list of questions to the former chief executive.
In a dispatch with similar consequences to the one issued on January 5, Chui Sai On argued that the issues that accompany the decision not to allow Edmund Ho to testify at stake were “confidential or reserved.” MDT