The man who murdered heart transplant surgeon Victor Chang is set to be released from prison.
Malaysian national Chiew Seng Liew shot dead Dr Chang in Sydney in 1991.
He was granted parole last month with an order that he be released no later than Wednesday this week.
But NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith applied to the NSW Supreme Court for a review.
Justice Robert Beech-Jones on Thursday dismissed the appeal.
Liew, 69, suffers from Parkinson's disease and the early onset of dementia, and is considered very frail for his age.
He was sentenced to a maximum of 26 years in prison for firing two shots, one of which killed 54-year-old Dr Chang, during a failed extortion attempt on July 4, 1991, at Mosman on Sydney's lower north shore.
He has served 21 years of his sentence and became eligible for parole last year.
Liew is to be deported to Malaysia soon after release.
The government claimed the State Parole Authority's (SPA) decision failed to consider that upon Liew's release the remaining five years of his sentence would be expunged because he would no longer be in Australia under supervision.
