Hong Kong court rejects ousted lawmaker’s final bid to overturn conviction for storming Legislative Council meeting
- Pro-independence lawmaker Sixtus Baggio Leung was involved in a 2016 oath-taking saga and jailed for charging security at a Legco meeting
- Court of Final Appeal upholds Leung’s unlawful assembly conviction, dismissing defence argument that an accused can’t be liable for any fear unknowingly caused
The Court of Final Appeal on Friday said Leung’s challenge against his conviction for taking part in an unlawful assembly in November 2016 raised an important question of law – but that it “must be dismissed” regardless of the answer.
At issue was the proper construction of the phrase “likely to cause any person reasonably to fear” in the offence created by the Public Order Ordinance.
His lawyers have argued that prosecutors must prove the defendant knew, intended or was reckless as to whether his involvement in a public assembly would cause others to reasonably fear a breach of the peace, such that the accused would not be held liable for any fear he unknowingly caused.
But the court found that unnecessary, given that the purpose of the offence, as stated by then attorney general Denys Roberts, was for the “prevention and control of disorders at all stages, with particular emphasis upon dealing with them as early as possible”.
Mr Justice Joseph Fok said such an offence was “not logically linked to whether the assembled persons do or do not foresee such reasonable apprehension as the consequence of their acts”, but focused on responding to the objectionable nature of those acts.
More importantly, Fok noted that the lower courts had already ruled that Leung must have known his conduct was likely to cause apprehension of a breach of the peace when he and his co-defendants, who included fellow lawmaker Yau Wai-ching, charged at the cordon of security guards blocking their way to a conference room on November 2, 2016.
