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. The judge added he would have needed to give the matter further consideration had it not been for the Government's decision not to fight the application. Wong spent three nights in custody before being released on bail on July 3 last year. The bid for a hearing by the Court of Final Appeal will be on the basis that the case raises questions of law which are of great general and public importance. During the Court of Appeal hearing it was argued Wong's conduct fell within the legal boundaries of freedom of expression. Wong was convicted of scandalising the Judiciary in relation to articles which appeared in the Oriental Daily News in December 1997, and January last year. He was also found guilty of contempt of court in relation to a paparazzi campaign against an appeal court judge. Rejecting his appeal, Mr Justice Barry Mortimer had said the campaign had created a real risk of damaging confidence in the administration of justice. The articles were published and the paparazzi campaign launched at a time when the Oriental Press Group was unhappy with court rulings which had gone against it.
