A case of alleged spying involving Hong Kong’s trade promotion office in London has returned to court, with the defence asking for more information to process thousands of messages, encrypted audio files and untranslated materials presented as evidence.
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But the judge at the Central Criminal Court, commonly known as the Old Bailey, denied the request on Friday after prosecutors maintained the evidence provided to both sides was “more than sufficient”.
Bill Yuen Chung-biu, a 63-year-old office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, appeared in court alongside 38-year-old Peter Wai Chi-leung, who is understood to work as a Border Force officer in the United Kingdom and directs a private security firm.
They are accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service by engaging in unlawful information gathering, illegal surveillance and committing acts of deception between December 2023 and May this year, in violation of Britain’s National Security Act. They also allegedly forcibly entered a residential property on May 1.
Neither man entered a plea and both spoke only to confirm their personal details.
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Yuen’s new defence counsel, appointed this month, told the court they were struggling to process the volume of the prosecution’s evidence in the limited time available.
They requested the prosecution provide a detailed case summary and witness list to help them review the existing evidence more efficiently.