Hong Kong court upholds acquittal of Democratic Party chairman in protest case

An appellate court has upheld the acquittal of the leader of Hong Kong’s largest opposition party in an unlawful assembly case stemming from the 2019 anti-government protests.

The Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed the Department of Justice’s request to send Lo Kin-hei’s case back to the District Court for reconsideration.

The three presiding judges found the Democratic Party chairman’s acquittal was not so “perverse” as to warrant the higher court’s intervention. They added the original trial judge had misunderstood the law regarding public order offences.

The appellate court also maintained a freelance journalist’s conviction for weapons possession in the same case.

Lo said he had been unable to plan for his future as the criminal proceedings dragged on and he had no choice but to “face it one more time” if prosecutors decided to take their case to the Court of Final Appeal.

Lo, a former Southern district council chairman, was among 10 people arrested during an illegal gathering that helped to divert police attention during the siege of Polytechnic University in Hung Hom – the site of some of the social unrest’s most intense clashes – on November 18, 2019. He was the only defendant acquitted in the case.

Four of his co-defendants were jailed for between 14 and 18 months after pleading guilty to taking part in an unlawful assembly, with a fifth defendant sentenced to up to nine months’ detention at a rehabilitation centre for the same offence.