Photo scandal at Hong Kong court: integrity and jury safety under spotlight after Edward Leung trial
City’s legal eagles call for tighter security and tougher punishments after anonymous email sender promises ‘more’ photos of jurors at riot trial
The integrity of Hong Kong’s courts and safety of juries have come under the spotlight after a photo of jurors in the high-profile trial of an independence activist was sent in an anonymous email to the judiciary.
Legal heavyweights on Saturday called for tighter security and tougher penalties for those who flout court rules, but experts were split on whether the jury should have been dismissed earlier.
There had been at least two other suspected cases of photography at the trial, which involved nine defendants, including localist Edward Leung Tin-kei, over the 2016 Mong Kok riot.
On Friday afternoon, shortly before the verdicts were delivered, the judge revealed that a photo of at least four of the nine jurors had been sent to an email account managed by the judiciary’s complaints office. An accompanying Chinese line in the email read: “There are a lot more.”
Public barred from courtroom at Edward Leung’s Mong Kok riot trial after picture of jurors leaked by email
A police source told the Post that the email had been sent at 8am on Friday but only read by judiciary staff at 10am.