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Hong KongLaw and Crime

Hong Kong opposition group vows to take complaint against magistrate to judiciary, over case in which activist denied bail

  • Principal Magistrate Don So Man-lung comes under fire after rejecting bail for activist Tam Tak-chi, charged over uttering seditious words
  • So also accused of setting excessively high bail for Tam in earlier case, but criminal lawyer says there is no ‘standard’ amount

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A photo of activist Tam Tak-chi is shown at a press conference the group of lawmakers and district councillors held at Tamar. Photo: Dickson Lee
Jack LauandPhila Siu

Seven opposition lawmakers and district councillors on Wednesday vowed to file a complaint with the judiciary against a magistrate who denied bail to an activist charged over uttering seditious words in Hong Kong.

The development came a day after Tam Tak-chi, the leading figure of the localist People Power party, became the first person charged with sedition since at least the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997. Tam was remanded in custody after a court heard he had issued calls for the city’s liberation and disbanding the police force.

Speaking on Wednesday, Tsuen Wan district councillor Roy Tam Hoi-pong accused Principal Magistrate Don So Man-lung of Fanling Court, who rejected the activist’s bail application, of accepting “a biased police account” due to his own political views.

District councillor Roy Tam (third from left) and People Power lawmaker Raymond Chan (second from right) at the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar on Wednesday. Photo Dickson Lee
District councillor Roy Tam (third from left) and People Power lawmaker Raymond Chan (second from right) at the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar on Wednesday. Photo Dickson Lee

Roy Tam of the NeoDemocrats said So should be barred from adjudicating cases related to the anti-government movement and he would file his complaint on Wednesday. People Power lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen said his party colleague would reapply for bail at the High Court.

Tam Tak-chi was charged on Tuesday with five counts of uttering seditious words and one count of disorderly conduct in public. The prosecutor told the court the activist had chanted seditious slogans such as “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”, “Five demands, not one less” and “Revolt” at street booths between March 15 and July 19.

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