A former newspaper editor given a four-month prison sentence for an unprecedented attack on the Judiciary will be allowed to remain on bail until after an attempt to take the case to the Court of Final Appeal.
Wong Yeung-ng, 46, is the first person to be allowed to remain free pending an application to challenge his convictions in the top court.
The former chief editor of Oriental Daily News had been due to return to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence for contempt of court next Friday. His challenge to the Court of Appeal was rejected on Tuesday.
But Mr Justice Arthur Leong Shiu-chung yesterday extended Wong's bail on the grounds that this was 'fair and just'.
The Government did not object to the application for bail which will now run until 10 days after Wong has applied for his case to be heard. That application is due to be heard on March 26.
Mr Justice Leong said it was rare for a bail application of this kind to be made. He was only aware of one similar attempt in a Privy Council case, before the Court of Final Appeal came into existence.