6 Hong Kong police officers found guilty of perverting justice over planting drugs to frame homeless man
Hong Kong Free Press
Six police officers have been found guilty of perverting the course of justice over planting drugs and covering up surveillance cameras to frame a street sleeper during a drug sweep in Sham Shui Po four years ago.
Two police officers were acquitted after District Judge Kathie Cheung found that there was not enough evidence to ascertain that items destroyed by officer Kwok Chin-sing, who was charged with two counts of criminal damage, belonged to street sleepers.
Constable Hon Ting-kwong was cleared of misconduct in public office over his alleged refusal to stop Kwok, his superior, since he had been acquitted of the two criminal damage charges.
The case involved two police drug sweeps on April 4 and April 24, 2020 around Tung Chau Street Park – home to many street sleepers in the city.
The eight officers pleaded not guilty to a total of 10 charges, including five counts of intending to pervert the course of justice, two counts of misconduct in public office, two counts of criminal damage, and one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm on another person.
Six guilty, two acquitted
Lam Wah-ka, Chan Sau-yip, Mok Chi-shing, Wan Pak-Sze, Leung Fei-pang, and Pong Chun-sze were found guilty of perverting the course of justice, the District Court heard on Friday.
The judge cited surveillance camera footage in finding the four men and two women guilty, saying in her judgement that “no one other than a police officer would dare to cover up CCTV cameras in the presence of police in public.”
Without orders from Sergeant Lam, the highest ranking officer involved, the subordinates would not have engaged in the act, judge Cheung said.
Mok, Lam, and Wan were found to have attempted to plant drugs on street sleeper Le Van Muoi and claiming in notebooks and statements that they had seized a black box containing suspected drugs from his tent.
Three of the officers accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm, Kwok, Leung, and Chan, were cleared of the charges after Cheung found another street sleeper’s testimony unreliable.
Le, a 54-year-old street sleeper from Vietnam, was arrested after the incident and charged with drug possession. He died whilst in the custody of the Correctional Services Department (CSD) six months later. His death was ruled a suicide by the coroner’s court last November.
The sentencing hearing for the six officers was scheduled for October 8. They were released on bail and ordered to surrender their passports and report to the police weekly.
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