Israeli World Domination

Hong Kong's highest court today overturned an American woman's murder conviction and ordered that she be retried for allegedly drugging her husband with a laced milkshake and bludgeoning him to death.

Hong Kong's court of final appeal found in its 111-page decision that prosecutors had used illegal evidence in the trial of Nancy Kissel, but ordered that the 45-year-old be kept in custody pending a bail application ahead of her second trial.

Kissel, who lost her first appeal against her conviction, smiled broadly when the chief justice, Andrew Li, announced the stunning reversal.

A friend of Kissel, Nancy Nassberg, told reporters the mother-of-two was "elated". She said Kissel's parents were unable to travel from the US for the hearing but they had been notified of the result.

"I'm proud, very proud of Nancy. She was a good wife. She is a great mother, a great daughter, a great sister and a great friend," Nassberg told reporters. "We think justice is served."

Kissel's lawyers argued during the appeal hearing that prosecutors broke the law by using evidence during the trial that drew from the American's initial bail hearing, after she was charged. The five judges from the court of final appeal agreed.

"It is plainly in the interests of justice that there should be a retrial," they said.

Kissel has been serving a life sentence since she was convicted in September 2005. Her trial made headlines worldwide with its allegations of drug abuse, kinky sex and adultery in the wealthy world of expatriates in the Asian financial hub.

Kissel admitted bashing her husband, Robert, in the head in self-defence as he was threatening her with a baseball bat in an argument. She described the 40-year-old investment banker for Merrill Lynch as an erratic, whiskey-swilling workaholic, who also snorted cocaine and forced her to have painful anal sex.