Hong Kong court strikes down complaints of bias against judge who convicted protester over carrying zip ties
- High Court panel of judges find insufficient evidence to back up complaints against Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong over detention centre order for then-student in 2020
- ‘In his oral reasons for verdict, the magistrate had analysed the evidence of the police officers and the defence,’ panel says
A High Court panel of judges on Tuesday struck down complaints of bias against a Hong Kong magistrate who convicted an anti-government protester for carrying zip ties in 2019.
The complaints focused on Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong’s decision in 2020 to convict then-student Willis Leong Chi-wai, who was aged 18 at the time, over his possession of zip ties, spanners and other tools.
In October that year, the Eastern Magistrate Court decided on a detention centre order for Leong on the charges of possessing “instruments fit for unlawful purposes”, referring to the zip ties, and having items “with intent to destroy or damage property”.
The defendant last year filed an appeal at the High Court that saw the charge for carrying the zip ties dropped. He had already finished his term at the detention centre when the proceedings began.
The charge was dropped in response to an earlier ruling from Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung concerning the first such conviction for possessing zip ties, with the top judge arguing a lower court had erroneously adopted a blanket interpretation of “instruments fit for unlawful purposes”.
