Jury selection for Mong Kok riot trial takes place with unprecedented levels of security at Hong Kong court
- Jurors’ faces hidden from view as judiciary goes to extreme lengths to ensure they can perform duties without interference
- Four defendants accused of taking part in civil unrest in February 2016
Jury selection for the trial of four people accused of taking part in the Mong Kok riot took place in near secrecy at Hong Kong’s High Court on Wednesday.
A pool of more than 100 potential jurors was whittled down to just nine – five women and four men – but the process unfolded under almost unheard-of levels of security.
Television footage of the events in court No 7 were broadcast outside the courtroom, but cameras avoided showing the jurors, while journalists were barred from entering the courtroom until after the nine selected jurors had left.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Judiciary said the intention was to ensure the jurors could exercise their duties without interference, in a case Mr Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau said was sprinkled with “political colours”.
Among those on trial is pro-independence activist Edward Leung Tin-kei. He and the other defendants face a string of riot and unlawful assembly charges over the events that took place in Mong Kok on February 8 and 9, 2016.