TONY CHEUNG TONY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Friday, 31 July, 2015, 11:33am
UPDATED : Friday, 31 July, 2015, 11:59am
Rimsky Yuen said if a defendant is unhappy about a verdict, they can consider legal action such as launching an appeal. Photo: Dickson Lee
Hong Kong’s justice minister has expressed concern over a magistrate’s revelation that he had been threatened since he found a woman protester guilty of assaulting a police officer with her breast.
Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said his department would contact police and consider launching judicial proceedings if there is sufficient evidence to back up the magistrate’s case.
On Thursday, Deputy Magistrate Michael Chan Pik-kiu, of Tuen Mun Court, said he feared for his safety since convicting Ng Lai-ying, 30, of using her breast to bump against Chief Inspector Chan Ka-po at an anti-parallel trading protest in Yuen Long on March 1.
Ng was jailed for three months and 15 days yesterday but was granted bail pending an appeal, along with three other co-defendants.
Ng Lai-ying (centre) was sentenced to three months in jail for using her breast to bump against Chief Inspector Chan Ka-po at an anti-parallel trading protest. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
This morning, Yuen said: “I understood that there were protests about [Chan’s verdict] and the posters and pictures used were insulting. There were also people chanting, including abuse, outside the court on the day of the verdict [a month ago].”
“Hong Kong is ruled by law, and to safeguard the rule of law, a verdict in court has to be respected,” Yuen said.
“No act, opinion or criticism should cross the legal boundary … and judges should not be insulted. If [an act] constituted contempt of court or other offences, the justice department would surely follow up … I don’t want this trend to worsen,” he added.
Yuen said if a defendant is unhappy about a verdict, they can consider legal action such as launching an appeal.
Additional reporting by Chris Lau
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1845426/hong-kong-justice-minister-considers-legal-action-after
