Ex-Hong Kong lawmaker cleared of perverting the course of justice after judge finds he was trying to calm a tense situation during 2019 protests
- Former Legco member Lam Cheuk-ting walks free from court after judge rules he tried to calm stand-off between demonstrators and police
- Judge Douglas Yau says ex-Legco member was ‘like a man … putting out fires here and there’.
A former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker accused of pressuring a man to erase images of protesters involved in the 2019 anti-government unrest was on Friday cleared of perverting the course of justice after a judge ruled he was trying to make peace in the middle of a conflict zone.
District Court judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong told West Kowloon Court that he believed Lam Cheuk-ting was trying to get the man out of danger when he appealed to him to let protesters check his mobile phone after he was besieged outside Tuen Mun Police Station in the New Territories.
Yau highlighted video footage of the incident and said Lam’s calm manner during the hour-long conflict outside the police station was proof he wanted to resolve the tense situation.
“Lam that night was like a man putting out fires here and there,” he said. “He situated himself between the [prosecution] witness and those surrounding him, trying to resolve their differences, protecting the besieged and seeking police attention.”
“I truly cannot see how Lam had any intent to coerce the witness to remove his pictures so as to obstruct any potential prosecution in the future,” Yau said.
