Hong Kong government afraid of adverse judgment, says judge asked to step down from human trafficking judicial review

A High Court judge questioned whether the government was afraid that he would rule against it in a judicial review on human trafficking when it asked him to withdraw from the case.

Mr Justice Kevin Zervos was commenting in court today on a request made by the Justice Department last week for him to recuse himself from the case. He noted that the government had accused him of having potential bias as he had expressed his view that a fundamental change was needed to combat human trafficking in Hong Kong.

READ MORE: Hong Kong judge told to step down from human trafficking case over possible bias 

However, he said he found the government had failed to show any evidence to show that he had “actual bias”. He said it relied on a news report about a speech he made when he was still director of public prosecutions in the Department of Justice in 2013.

“I find the [Department of Justice] is more concerned about me making a decision against them,” Zervos said.

Barrister Stewart Wong Kai-ming SC, for the government, said the judicial review was about an applicant challenging the adequacy of the current legal system in protecting victims of human trafficking. He said the core issue was not the judge’s view on the issue but what he thought of the system.

“We found that the judge has expressed a firm view that the system is not good enough,” Wong said. “A fair-minded observer would find that [Zervos] would cause a real possibility of subconscious and unconscious bias in the case.”

The judge replied that he had taken a position on human trafficking, but asked whether this was a bias.