A Hong Kong court has ordered a murder suspect to face a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict on whether he committed the crime while suffering from a delusion that authorities were harassing him with electromagnetic waves.
The 23-day High Court trial of former software developer Matthew Choi ended with a hung jury on Wednesday.
Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping discharged the seven-member panel, saying the case was not so complex as to warrant the jurors, who had debated behind closed doors for more than a day, to press on until they reached a verdict.
Lawyers for the jobless man had argued that he was suffering from psychosis when he killed a taxi driver in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack on October 12, 2021.
The trial heard that Choi, now 36, stabbed 48-year-old Wai Kim-hung in the neck immediately after boarding his cab outside the WE hotel on Eastern Street in Sai Ying Pun at 4.52am.
The defendant, who did not know his victim, alighted from the car and fled less than a minute later.