The case of Amina Bokhary, the niece of Court of Final Appeal judge Mr Justice Kemal Bokhary, has caused a huge public outcry after she was given probation and fined for slapping a police officer and drink-driving. The court upheld the original sentence and the government will now appeal against the decision, which spared her a jail term for her third conviction for assaulting an officer.
It's not difficult to understand why there has been so much public anger; this was not the first time she had assaulted a police officer.
The fact that Bokhary suffers from bipolar disorder was a factor in sentencing. I don't agree with magistrate Anthony Yuen Wai-ming's lenient sentence, but I admire his courage for not bowing to public pressure and for upholding judicial independence.
There have been allegations of favouritism to protect the rich and outcries that justice is dead in Hong Kong. These statements are unfair because the judicial process has not been completed.
The rule of law and individual freedoms are the foundation of the city's stability and prosperity. If we believe in the rule of law, we should have faith that the legal system will provide the appropriate means to redress the situation and should not assume that our judicial independence has been harmed simply based on one court ruling.
Moreover, we should never apply political pressure to try to sway court decisions because that would be tantamount to interfering with judicial independence and is no different from trial by public opinion, which will lead us down a dangerous, slippery slope.
On Sunday, some people demonstrated at Government House, calling for justice to be done, while some politicians and retired policemen supported the calls for a harsher sentence. Their original intention to uphold the law has largely been defeated by their own actions; asking the executive and legislative branches of government to 'correct' a judicial decision is effectively attacking our system which advocates the separation of the three branches to protect individual freedoms and prevent the government from abusing its power.