Hong Kong solicitor convicted of wilfully obstructing police officer over refusal to produce identification documents
- Leo Yau refused to show Sergeant Wong Wai-kit his identity card, legal credentials when trying to enter West Kowloon Court for national security law hearing last year
- Magistrate Andy Cheng says defendant was making it difficult for police to execute their duties on that day
A solicitor has been convicted of wilfully obstructing a police officer by refusing to produce identification documents when he sought to enter a Hong Kong court for a national security law hearing last year.
The 35-year-old stood trial last December at West Kowloon Court, the same building which police barred him from entering when the 47 appeared in the dock for the first time on March 1 last year.
The case was at the time the city’s biggest prosecution under the Beijing-imposed legislation and hundreds of supporters turned up that morning in hope of attending the hearing.
Latecomers who failed to get a seat in the public gallery had gathered outside the court in Cheung Sha Wan to shout independence slogans, prompting police to restrict access to the building that evening as the hearing continued into the small hours of the next day.
The trial in December heard that Yau had snubbed a request by Sergeant Wong Wai-kit to show his identity card and legal credentials, as he maintained that police had no power to cordon off the area and prevent him, an officer of the court, from going through.
The lawyer twice complained via the force’s 999 hotline and insisted he would refer the matter to the chief magistrate, but was arrested and taken away before he could do so.