A former Hong Kong political activist has won an appeal against his riot conviction due to the trial judge’s error in allowing prosecutors to substantially alter their allegations midway through proceedings.
Advertisement
The Court of Appeal on Friday ordered the dismissal of Alvin Cheng Kam-mun’s conviction over his alleged role in the violence at Polytechnic University at the height of the 2019 anti-government protests.
Cheng, who now runs a logistics company, was an assistant to former opposition lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai.
He was among eight people accused of perverting the course of justice in November 2019 by helping protesters escape arrest by driving them away from the scene of the riot.
The defendant was seen emerging from a manhole 600 metres (1,968 feet) away from the institution in Hung Hom on November 20 that year, three days after police barricaded the campus that had become a protesters’ fortress to battle officers.
Advertisement
At the District Court trial in 2022, prosecutors were unable to provide evidence as to when and where Cheng entered the underground sewage tunnel, nor could they show that the accused had also aided others in their escape.
Deputy judge Andy Cheng Lim-chi allowed the belated addition of a rioting charge against the former activist, after questioning how a “rioter” could be found guilty of obstructing justice simply by accepting the help offered by his supporters.