Public barred from courtroom at Edward Leung’s Mong Kok riot trial after picture of jurors leaked by email

Less than an hour after presiding judge announced removal, jury returned to find pro-independence activist guilty of rioting but clearing him of incitement

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Edward Leung Tin-kei (centre) is escorted away from the Lai Chi Kok Detention Centre for the Mong Kok riot trial. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 5:15pm, 18 May 2018Updated: 8:44am, 28 May 2018

Members of the public were booted out of the courtroom less than an hour before Hong Kong pro-independence activist Edward Leung Tin-kei heard his fate in the Mong Kok riot trial on Friday.

Someone had taken a photo of at least four of the nine jurors and sent it to an email account belonging to the judiciary’s complaints office, flouting the rule that photography is not allowed in Hong Kong courts.

At about 4.30pm, presiding judge Madam Justice Anthea Pang Po-kam reconvened the session to tell the court about the photo. An accompanying line in the email stated “there is a lot more”, Pang said.

A police source said the photo was taken inside the courtroom.

The jury had been cloistered in the High Court since early afternoon on Wednesday to deliberate on their decision, after about 50 days of hearings.

Pang told the 30 or so people in court that someone who had been attending the hearings was not following the rules. She had, during the course of the hearing, specifically stated that photography was banned and had issued an additional court order.