Hong Kong protests: judge declines request to withdraw from riot case over ‘bias’, says defendants had lost focus
- Twelve out of 23 defendants on trial file joint application alleging Judge Johnny Chan had interfered with cross-examination and attacked their strategies
- Chan argues all doubt he had cast on defence was for the sake of case management and to prevent trial from overrunning
Twelve out of 23 defendants on trial at West Kowloon Court filed a joint application last week asking Judge Johnny Chan Jong-herng to withdraw from the proceedings on the grounds that he had prevented their lawyers from cross-examining witnesses and attacked their defence strategies, often with sarcastic remarks.
Delivering his decision on Monday, Chan, declining to recuse himself, found no issue in his own handling of the trial, and instead said the defence had lost focus on contentious matters in the case and ran the risk of dragging out proceedings.
The application was made after 52 days of trial in relation to a disturbance in Sheung Wan on July 28, 2019, when demonstrators blocked roads and clashed with police in protest against officers’ use of force in dispersing a rally that took place a week before.
The 23 were jointly charged with one count of rioting, with two facing additional charges of assaulting a police officer and unlicensed possession of radio communications equipment.
The District Court-level trial, which was being heard in the more spacious West Kowloon Court to accommodate the large number of lawyers and spectators, centred on whether a riot had indeed occurred on the night concerned, and, if so, whether the accused were involved.
Defence lawyer Steven Kwan Man-wai, on behalf of the 12 defendants requesting a new judge, said Chan had barred the defence from questioning police witnesses over details of the time and place of events that night, thereby preventing them from establishing their case.