A lawyer who was jailed for 4½ months for tussling with a plain-clothes police officer in Hong Kong has been released on bail pending an appeal in his case. Samuel Phillip Bickett won the application at the High Court on Friday, after serving more than six weeks behind bars over a charge of assaulting an officer. His release was initially set for September 18. Bickett, a former Asia-Pacific compliance director at Bank of America Securities, was held on a HK$100,000 (US$12,859) bond, with his partner offering an additional HK$50,000 to guarantee his compliance with the bail conditions. He was also told to surrender his US passport and report to police three times a week. Hong Kong protests: first person found guilty for possessing zip ties appeals decision The case centred on an altercation near Exit F of Causeway Bay MTR station on December 7, 2019, three months after the city’s 31,000 police officers received top-level approval to carry retractable batons during off-hours to execute “constabulary duties” amid the anti-government protests that year. Bickett was accused of assaulting Senior Constable Yu Shu-sang by punching him and kneeling on his chest in a bid to snatch his baton, which the officer earlier used to try to subdue a man who allegedly jumped a turnstile. Defence lawyers contended Yu had used excessive force when he attempted to apprehend the purported fare dodger. They said this act, together with Yu’s initial denial that he was a policeman, gave Bickett reason to believe the officer would pose a danger to others had he turned a blind eye. Lawyers also pointed to differences in the sequence of events in Yu’s court statement and that of Lo Chi-keung, a prison officer who witnessed the incident. Vice-chair of June 4 vigil organiser wins bail at Hong Kong High Court Prior to the trial in April, Bickett had applied to terminate the proceedings, alleging investigators had deliberately left out crucial evidence that could prove his innocence. He also accused police of attempting to interfere with a witness by proposing Lo receive a HK$4,000 cash reward for his assistance before the trial began – an offer they later retracted. Those submissions were snubbed by Magistrate Arthur Lam Hei-wei, who cited a lack of evidence. Bickett was convicted in June after Lam found both Yu and Lo honest and reliable, and held that the discrepancies in their testimonies were immaterial. A date for the appeal has yet to be fixed.