Hong Kong man cleared of rioting in 2019 after appeals court casts doubt over police officer’s testimony
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong man who was found guilty and jailed for rioting during the 2019 protests and unrest has been acquitted after an appeals court highlighted inconsistencies between a police officer’s testimony and footage of the incident.
Liu Hong-leung’s conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday morning. Liu was charged with rioting and possessing an offensive weapon for unlawful use in relation to a protest in Jordan on November 18, 2019.
That day, over 200 people were arrested as protesters gathered in Jordan and Yau Ma Tei while clashes at the nearby Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hung Hom – seen as one of the most violent episodes of the months-long anti-extradition law demonstrations – played out.
In September 2022, the District Court found Liu guilty of rioting and possessing an offensive weapon, and jailed him for four years and two months. He later filed a leave to appeal application in an attempt to overturn his conviction and sentence.
On Wednesday, a panel of three Court of Appeal judges ruled that the lower court had erred in finding Liu guilty.
The judges said in a written judgement that there were discrepancies between the testimony of the officer who arrested Leung and footage of the incident.
In finding Liu guilty, the District Court judge “did not fully consider the fundamental differences” or address the points of suspicion in the officer’s testimony, the Court of Appeal judges wrote.
The lower court’s verdict was hence “not sound,” they added.
Liu, who was a 20-year-old student at the time of his arrest, was jailed in October 2022. He was granted bail ahead of the appeal but had still spent two years and four months in jail before that, according to media outlet The Witness.
Another defendant who was also found guilty in Liu’s case, and similarly appealed, lost her challenge on Wednesday. The judges upheld the rioting conviction of first aider Lam Chin-ching, who was jailed for four years and eight months.
According to the judgment, her argument that under the humanitarian principle, the actions of a person offering assistance should not constitute criminal acts did not stand.
The judges also referred to the argument that another person in Lam’s case, who was also a first aider, was found not guilty. The two pieces of evidence were different, the judges said, explaining that the other person was seen wearing a first aid vest and did not appear in violent scenes.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
Around 10,250 people were arrested in connection with the unrest, many of them young people.
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