Hong Kong (DPA) — Hong Kong's former number two government official and the billionaire brothers who run one of the world's largest real estate firms pleaded not guilty at the opening of the city's biggest-ever corruption case Thursday.

Former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan, 66, received bribes in the form of payments and loans totalling more than 35 million Hong Kong dollars (4.5 million US dollars) from the co-chairmen of Sun Hung Kai Properties, prosecutors said.

The trial is scheduled to last for 70 days before High Court Judge Andrew Macrae, and comes two years after Hui and brothers Thomas and Raymond Kwok were arrested by the city's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in March 2012.

Hui is the highest-ranking official ever to stand trial in the city, and the case has increased scrutiny of the relationships between Hong Kong's tycoons and government officials.

The graft allegations against him cover his tenure as chief secretary from 2005 to 2007 under the administration of chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, and subsequently as a non-official member of the Executive Council until 2009.

Looking relaxed in the courtroom and dressed in a dark blue suit, Hui denied all eight charges including furnishing false information, misconduct in public office and conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

The total of five defendants, who have been out on bail, pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.

The Kwoks faces a charge of conspiracy to offer an advantage to a public servant, and Raymond Kwok and Hui both face a charge of furnishing false information contained in an invoice.

Two other bribery charges concern Sun Hung Kai director Thomas Chan and Francis Kwan, a former executive at bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.

Hui and the Kwoks were seated together in the courtroom, with the two other defendants sitting behind them. More than 100 local and international reporters who could not get a seat in the courtroom watched the trial outside on three large screens.

A total of 82 prosecution witnesses, including business tycoons and former government ministers who served alongside Hui, are expected to testify during the trial.

Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, has a separate government and legal system from the mainland. It reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, following more than 150 years of British colonial rule.

The ICAC was set up by the British colonial government in the 1970s to tackle corruption.

By Bill Smith (DPA)

BEIJING —  Chinese police have detained prominent journalist Gao Yu on charges of passing state secrets to an overseas website, China Central Television said on Thursday.

The state broadcaster showed Gao, 70, confessing to the charge and saying her action had "harmed national interests."

But London-based Amensty International accused China of "using trumped-up charges" against the well-known government critic, who was a regular contributor to Germany's Deutsche Welle.

Beijing-based dissident Hu Jia, a close friend of Gao, said he detected a "change" from her usual voice in the video, in which her face was obscured. 

"We hope people don't believe that this is the real Gao Yu," Hu told dpa by telephone, adding that security officers had coerced other activists into making filmed confessions.

"Gao is the latest victim of China's vaguely worded and arbitrary state secret laws, which the authorities repeatedly use as a smokescreen to target activists," said Anu Kultalahti, Amnesty's China researcher.

"The TV confession proves nothing and is likely to have been made under duress," Kultalahti said.

Other state media quoted a Beijing police statement as saying Gao was suspected of "illegally obtaining a highly confidential document and sending an electronic copy of it to an overseas website" in June.

Observers speculated that the charge could be linked to a Hong Kong-based website's publication of an internal file, known as Document No 9, that discusses political threats to the ruling Communist Party.

"The information contained in Document No 9 in no way merits being classified as a state secret," Kultalahti said. "If Gao is being held for sharing this document, she must be immediately released."

Hu said Gao's apparent leaking of the document had "historical significance."

"She's letting international society understand [party leader] Xi Jinping's true nature," he said.

The leaked document lists seven "noteworthy problems" facing the party's ideology, including attempts to undermine it with "Western constitutional democracy," and the promotion of "universal values" and civil society.

It warns party members that "Western anti-China forces and internal dissidents" are trying to challenge "our mainstream ideology."

Gao was previously sentenced to six years in prison in 1993 on the same charge of leaking state secrets to a Hong Kong newspaper.

Police detained her again on April 24 and seized "substantial evidence" at her Beijing home, state media said.

Her arrest came amid a crackdown on dissent ahead of the 25th anniversary of the party's military suppression of democracy protests overnight on June 3-4, 1989.

Gao was detained for more than one year in the crackdown that followed the 1989 protests, but she was released on health grounds. She has a "direct link to June 4," Hu said.

Police in Beijing have detained at least five activists on public order charges this week after about 20 people held a seminar on Saturday to mark the anniversary.

They have placed Hu and other dissidents under house arrest.

"The timing of Gao's detention is highly dubious and raises serious questions as to the authorities' true motives," Kultalahti said.

SEOUL (DPA) — Authorities have arrested the head of the company operating the ferry that sank off South Korea in April leaving more than 300 dead or missing, a news report said.

Kim Han Sik was seized at his home in Bundang, south of Seoul, on charges including manslaughter and vessel safety violations, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing unnamed investigators.

Kim was thought to have approved or tolerated the routine overloading of the Sewol as it plied the route from the western port of Incheon to the southern resort island of Jeju, it said.

The vessel was carrying 3,608 tons of cargo, including 108 vehicles, on April 16 when it capsized and sank on its way to the island, around three times its official limit, investigators have said.

Of the 476 people on board, 172 are now listed as survivors, 35 were missing and 269 bodies were recovered.

Many of the dead were from a high school group of teenagers on an outing.

Rescuers said they hoped to wrap up the recovery operation by Saturday.