Hong Kong court overturns ex-lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting’s conviction for exposing corruption buster’s investigation into police commander
- Lam Cheuk-ting acquitted of three counts of revealing inquiry by city’s corruption buster into police commander in relation to violence at railway station in 2019
- Deputy judge says Lam only disclosed Superintendent Yau was under investigation, offence not included in ordinance
Deputy judge Douglas Yau of the Court of First Instance on Thursday acquitted Lam of three counts of disclosing probe details when he revealed an inquiry by the city’s corruption buster into Superintendent Yau Nai-keung over alleged misconduct in public office. The Democratic Party member was sentenced to four months in prison in 2022.
Yau was an assistant commander in Yuen Long when more than 100 white-clad men, most of them armed with rods and rattan canes, injured at least 45 people in an incident that was widely regarded as an escalation point for tensions between police and radicals during the 2019 anti-government protests.
The officer, who later became a regional commander in the northern New Territories, said that night that his team found no rods in a nearby village, where most of the assailants had gathered after the attack, and uncovered no signs of criminal activity.
Lam subsequently accused police of spreading lies and delaying an investigation into the incident during three press conferences between December 2019 and July 2020.
Hong Kong ex-opposition lawmaker has case to answer over Yuen Long mob violence
He also revealed that Yau was being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and criticised the force’s decision to allow the officer to lead an inquiry into the attack while his integrity was under scrutiny.
In 2022, Eastern Court Magistrate Jacky Ip Kai-leung rejected Lam’s defence that it was in the public interest for him to divulge the information because of Yau’s selection to lead a police investigation into the incident.
But in the 25-page judgment handed down on Thursday, Deputy Judge Yau said the legal issue should centre on whether offences being disclosed fell under the provisions of Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, including bribery and corrupt transaction.
He noted that Lam only spilled out that Yau was under a misconduct investigation, an offence not included in the ordinance.
Ex-Hong Kong lawmaker cleared of 2019 perverting the course of justice charge
Tracing back to the legislative process of the ordinance, the deputy judge said the intent of the bills committee in 1996 was to keep the interpretation of the article as narrow as possible, as only revealing people being investigated for specific offences included would be considered a breach.
Yau added the government should not bring in a wider interpretation of the law to convict Lam, and ordered it to pay his legal fees for the trial and appeal proceedings.
Lam has been remanded in custody since March 2021 under the national security law. He also has been standing trial in a national security case over his alleged role in an unofficial primary election for the Legislative Council in 2020 which authorities deemed subversive.
