Former district councillor wins appeal against conviction for flouting Hong Kong’s Covid-19 social-distancing rules
- Lance Yan was accused of breaching a government ban on gathering in public when he and six other men confronted staff at housing estate
- Court rules a place is deemed public only if people ‘are admitted as the public’, but that is not the case for visitors of private premises
A former district councillor won an appeal against his conviction for gathering with others in a lift lobby of a subsidised housing estate, after a judge ruled the location was a private area which fell outside the scope of Hong Kong’s Covid-19 social-distancing rules.
The High Court on Friday quashed an 80-hour community service order imposed on Lance Yan Pui-lam, warning that categorising private places as public just because some outsiders had obtained access could have “very dangerous consequences” on how law enforcement applied public health regulations.
Yan, a former Tuen Mun District Council member, was accused of breaching a government ban on gathering in public on July 20, 2020, when he and six other men took the management staff at Siu Lun Court to task for failing to notify residents about a Covid-19 case at the complex.
A management officer complained the defendant had frightened her in the lift lobby of Sui Lun House by yelling and bombarding her with questions, which delayed her disinfection exercise.
Deputy Magistrate Henry Fung Lim-wai found Yan guilty last year of taking part in a prohibited gathering and slammed the ex-politician for his “selfish and irresponsible” conduct, which had caused “unnecessary troubles and fear”.
