Ex-lawmaker files appeal against conviction for disclosing identity of Hong Kong police officer under investigation
Hong Kong Free Press
Former Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting has appealed against his conviction for disclosing the identity of a police superintendent who was under investigation by Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog for his alleged role in a Yuen Long mob attack in 2019.
Lam appeared before Deputy High Court Judge Douglas Yau at the Court of Appeal on Friday morning. His barrister Erik Shum told the court that Lam sought an appeal on the grounds that it was in the public’s interest to know that a public officer was being investigated for misconduct.
Lam was found guilty in January 2022 on three counts of disclosing the identity of a person being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), an offence under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. He was sentenced to four months in prison.
The ex-lawmaker has been in custody since March 2021 on a separate national security charge for running in a primary election for democrats in July 2020.
Lam was also arrested in August 2020 and charged separately with taking part in the riot in Yuen Long along with six other defendants. He pleaded not guilty to the charge earlier this month when the trial began.
Lam had announced at three press conferences between November 2019 and July 2020 that then-assistant district commander Yau Nai-keung was being investigated by the ICAC.
The commander was under investigation for his role in the Yuen Long mob attacks on July 21, 2019. That day, over 100 rod-wielding men stormed Yuen Long MTR station leaving 45 people injured – including journalists, protesters, commuters and the ex-lawmaker.
After the Yuen Long incident, Yau was promoted to the role of superintendent for New Territories North, which had jurisdiction over the police unit investigating the incident. That amounted to “[police] investigating one of its own,” Shum said. “What if 821 happens? Or 921? Will the police do the same thing?”
Citing the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance – which states that if a defendant’s disclosure of the identity of a person under investigation reveals serious threats to public safety, this may amount to a reasonable excuse for doing so – Shum said Lam’s revelation of Yau’s identity was in the public interest and therefore justified.
‘No relation’ to public safety
Lam’s disclosure was suspected to have violated Section 30 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, which bars the disclosure of the identity of people investigated for offences under Part 2 of the ordinance, such as bribery, prosecutors said in December 2021.
Shum on Friday questioned the prosecution’s interpretation of the ordinance, arguing that Lam had only disclosed that Yau was the subject of an investigation for misconduct in public office, a common law offence not part of the Prevention of Corruption Ordinance, so the disclosure was not prohibited by the ordinance.
Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Alice Chan told the court that what Yau was being investigated for was irrelevant, and that Lam had violated the law simply by saying that the police officer was being investigated for misconduct.
Chan also questioned whether Lam had made the disclosure in the interest of public safety, adding that he could have sent letters to the police instead of holding press conferences.
She argued that revealing Yau’s identity did not add to his initial message at the press conferences that the police were investigating one of their own. “There was no need for that. There’s no relation between disclosing [Yau’s identity] and public safety,” she added.
The court will issue a ruling on the appeal within three months.
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