Leung, who has started his preretirement leave from his current post as permanent secretary for housing, planning and lands, then told a Public Accounts Committee hearing that, because of the legal proceedings, he was advised by a team of six lawyers, headed by Anthony Neoh, not to testify, but that he would be willing to speak to a three-member inquiry panel set up by the chief executive to investigate the matter.

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"The director of audit's investigation never offered me any opportunities to give my defense," said Leung. "The criticisms that targeted me [in the report] are therefore totally unfair."

Henderson Land has denied any impropriety in the whole saga.

Senior government sources said that Leung's judicial review will likely be granted and that he has been planning his legal strategy on the matter for some time and with the assistance of several unnamed advisers who are critical of the Audit Commission's work on the case.

"Leung's move was not hysterical but a well-planned protest. He hired a team of lawyers to study how to overthrow the allegations against him," the source said.

In the Audit Commission report released November 16, Leung was accused of not conferring with other government departments before exercising his discretionary power to exclude the land area of a transport terminus from being calculated into the gross floor area of Henderson Land's Grand Promenade site. The decision expanded the project's gross floor area from 85,720 square meters to 135,451 square meters, and deprived the government of at least HK$125 million in potential revenue.

Following Leung's surprising reticence, Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen told the committee that he had compelled Leung - still officially a civil servant - to appear at the hearing after he initially said he wasn't going to show up because he had already filed his judicial review.

But Suen said he could not force Leung to answer the questions of the committee, because "the constitution protects his right to remain silent."

In response, committee chairman Philip Wong vowed that he will exercise the power conferred under the Legco (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance to summon Leung to attend the committee's next hearing Thursday morning. Traditionally, officials are just "invited" to come to Legco.

Wong noted that Leung is allowed to bring along his legal adviser for the hearing, but that he will be risking "something very similar to contempt of court" if he doesn't appear and answer the questions posed.

People who refuse to respond to Legco's questions without proper explanations are subject to a maximum fine of HK$10,000 and 12 months of imprisonment.

In his writ for judicial review - for which he is being represented by Neoh, the former Securities and Futures Commission chairman - Leung also complained that he was not given any opportunity to respond to the Audit Commission's allegations before the report was published.

The writ criticized as "wrong in law," "unreasonable" and "beyond the remit of the director of audit" the report's conclusions that granting the bonus land was unfair to other tenderers, and that Leung should have consulted all other relevant government departments before exercising his discretionary powers. Claiming they battered his reputation as a public official, Leung requested that the court quash the report's criticisms.

Audit chief Benjamin Tang said the "value of money audit" was carried out in accordance with the set "procedural guidelines," which required that a copy of the draft report be sent to Suen and the incumbent buildings director for comments. Their affirmative responses were incorporated into the published audit reports.

Meanwhile, more than 100 representatives from the architectural, surveying, engineering and land planning sectors, including Hong Kong Housing Society chairman David Lee and Link REIT's chief executive Victor So, backed Leung's bid by publishing an advertisement in several local newspapers Monday praising Leung's open- minded working style and slamming the "unfair emotional criticisms" against him.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang has called on Leung to cooperate with both the government's and Legco's investigations.

In January 2001, the Henderson Group paid a land premium of HK$2.43 billion and beat eight rivals - including Hang Lung Properties, Sun Hung Kai Properties, Swire Properties and Cheung Kong (Holdings) - for the right to develop the 131,320 sqft site.