Fair trial for Stand News editors made impossible after evidence destroyed, Hong Kong court hears

A fair trial has been rendered impossible for two former top editors at the now-closed Stand News website who have been accused of sedition because of police officers’ “irresponsible” destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence, a Hong Kong court has been told.

Defence lawyers on Monday summed up their arguments in support of an application to the District Court to end the trial of former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 53, and ex-acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, 35.

The pair are charged with conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications over 17 stories said to have attacked the central government, the city administration and the Beijing-decreed national security law. Stand News’ holding company, Best Pencil HK and also accused, is unrepresented in the proceedings.

During the trial, the court heard two senior inspectors from the force’s National Security Department had documented a total of 587 reports from the news site, but had only sought prosecutors’ advice on 30 of them before dispensing with the rest.

Legal counsel David Ma Wai-kwan on Monday said it was “beyond imagination” for two high-ranking officers to believe they did not need to keep records of an investigation into serious allegations against a media outlet.

“This is not how a responsible investigator would conduct himself in the course of a legitimate inquiry,” Ma said.