The city’s judiciary handled some of its most significant trials this year, some involving high-profile figures, others carrying serious political implications
Hong Kong’s courts had an eventful 2017, dealing with some of the most significant criminal trials since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule as well as cases that involved high-profile politicians and sparked international concerns over judicial independence in the city.
As politics in the city continues to polarise, the judiciary felt the impact of the ever-expanding rift between the city’s pro-establishment faction and those yearning for greater democracy.
Its adherence to the rule of law was called into question like never before – by international lawyers as well as experts from the United Nations – when the appeal court took heed of a request by government prosecutors to jail three student activists who led the 79-day pro-democracy sit-in, the 2014 Occupy protests. Among the trio was Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the poster boy of the umbrella movement.
Wong’s jailing came just months after the Court of First Instance disqualified four pro-democracy lawmakers, who had been democratically elected, at the government’s request. Meanwhile, the Court of Final Appeal, the city’s top court, refused to even listen to the final appeal by two ousted pro-independence lawmakers-elect, who were disqualified last year for their antics during their Legislative Council swearing in, like their four colleagues.
But the courts also had their share of critics in the pro-Beijing camp. The lower courts found seven police officers guilty of assaulting Occupy activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, and convicted a retired superintendent for beating a passer-by at an Occupy-related protest – prompting pro-establishment supporters to unleash insults on the two presiding judges, who were not ethnic Chinese.
Their complaints about “foreign judges” were echoed by commentators from mainland China, which led to the city’s justice ministers, both incumbent and former, to come to the court’s defence.
On a less controversial note, the criminal division of the High Court convicted former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen – the highest ranking official ever to come before the court – of misconduct in public office. A doctor and a technician were found guilty of manslaughter over the worst beauty treatment blunder the city had ever seen. The appeal court saw the return of infamous British banker Rurik Jutting, who made a bid to overturn his convictions a year after being found guilty of the brutal murders of two Indonesian women.
Watch: Hong Kong in 2017, year in review
On the human rights front, two of the court’s decisions in particular were hailed as a step forward by the city’s sexual minority groups.
