Court Quashes Teenager's Air Gun Conviction

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2019-07-04 HKT 17:33

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  • The High Court has overturned Lau Hong's conviction for carrying an imitation firearm during a protest near Legco. Photo: RTHK

    The High Court has overturned Lau Hong's conviction for carrying an imitation firearm during a protest near Legco. Photo: RTHK

The High Court has quashed the conviction of a student activist who was caught carrying an air gun near the Legislative Council in 2017.

Lau Hong had been put on probation for 18 months after being found guilty by an Eastern Court magistrate of carrying an imitation firearm.

The former member of pro-independence group Studentlocalism was 16 at the time.

The magistrate had rejected his explanation that he was carrying the air gun for self defence.

But at the appeal, defence lawyer Martin Lee argued that the magistrate had joined in the prosecution's questioning of the teenager and her intervention wasn't simply to clarify his account.

High Court Judge Albert Wong said he agreed that the magistrate had stepped into the courtroom battle herself.

Wong said the conviction was therefore unsafe because the defendant did not get a fair trial.

The teenager had been arrested after being stopped and searched by the police, while lawmakers in Legco were debating controversial changes to their rules of procedure.

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