Hong Kong yoga ball murder case: ex-professor to face ruling as early as Tuesday

Malaysian anaesthesiologist Khaw Kim Sun is expected to learn as early as Tuesday whether he will have to return to jail in Hong Kong for allegedly killing his wife and daughter with a gas-filled yoga ball a decade ago.

High Court Deputy Judge Brian Keith sent a panel of seven jurors to deliberate on Tuesday at 11.33am after a 41-day retrial of the 60-year-old Khaw, who allegedly put a yoga ball filled with lethal gas in the boot of a Mini Cooper and killed his wife Wong Siew Fing, 47, and their second child Lily Khaw Li Ling, 16, on May 22, 2015.

The two died of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the vehicle.

Khaw was convicted of two counts of murder in the first trial back in 2018, but he appealed to the upper courts in the following years. The case ultimately reached the Court of Final Appeal in 2023, which ruled that the trial judge had misdirected the jury. The case was then sent back to the High Court for a retrial.

Khaw is accused of purchasing carbon monoxide in a premeditated attempt at murdering his estranged wife. Prosecutors argued that Khaw had used medical research as a cover to explain his possession of the lethal gas.

In his defence, Khaw said the experiment to resuscitate rabbits poisoned with carbon monoxide was part of broader research to find out whether patients suffering from lethal gas poisoning should be given less oxygen to breathe to avoid causing more extensive cell damage.

The professor also said a long-standing pest problem in his three-storey home in Sai Kung had prompted him to carry two yoga balls filled with carbon monoxide from the office, as he intended to use the lethal gas to exterminate the shrews crawling from the garden.