Appeal dismissed in Lam Cheuk-ting photo deletion case
HK01 · 4 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed a Department of Justice appeal against the acquittal of former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, online media reporter Tsang Chun-hei and social worker Chung Hoi-yin in a case linked to images of protesters taken in 2019. The court maintained the not-guilty verdicts on the substantive charges, but allowed part of the prosecution’s challenge to a costs order involving Chung Hoi-yin
Key Points
- The case arose from events outside Tuen Mun Police Station on 6 July 2019, after the “Reclaim Tuen Mun Park” march, when the defendants were accused of asking a member of the public to delete photos or footage of protesters taken on 1 July that year.
- Lam Cheuk-ting and Tsang Chun-hei had been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, while Chung Hoi-yin faced charges of obtaining access to a computer with dishonest intent and criminal damage.
- All three were acquitted after trial in the District Court in 2023, and the Department of Justice later brought a case stated appeal that was decided by the High Court’s Court of Appeal on 9 October 2026.
- The Court of Appeal rejected the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittals and left the original not-guilty findings in place for Lam, Tsang and Chung.
- The prosecution succeeded only in part on costs: the order granting Chung costs in relation to the dishonest-access-to-computer charge was set aside, while other costs orders remained unchanged.
Why It Matters
The ruling leaves intact the acquittals in a politically sensitive case tied to the 2019 protest period, while also clarifying that appellate courts may separately revisit trial-level costs orders even when convictions are not secured. For Hong Kong readers, the outcome closes one strand of long-running litigation, though related records still note that Tsang was separately convicted and jailed for unlawful assembly in the same broader proceedings.