Hong Kong ousted lawmakers Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung and their three assistants have been found guilty of participating in an unlawful assembly during a chaotic episode at the legislature in 2016.

The group were charged with participating in an unlawful assembly and an alternative charge of forced entry in relation to chaotic scenes at the legislature in November 2016 during the oath row.

Yau Wai-ching Baggio Leung
Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung. Photo: inmediahk.net.

The three assistants convicted are Yeung Lai-hong, Chung Suet-ying and Cheng Tsz-lung. The five will be sentenced on June 4.

During Friday’s verdict hearing at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts, Acting Principal Magistrate Wong Sze-lai said that parts of the defence of the two ex-lawmakers were contradictory and illogical. She rejected their version of events that they had acted spontaneously and were only trying to leave the scene.

She said that, even if they genuinely believed they were still lawmakers at the time, it was not a valid reason shielding them from criminal liability.

The magistrate added that the court had jurisdiction over the case, as the conduct in question related to criminal offences, not legislative affairs.

Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung.
Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching during the chaotic scene in question. File Photo: Stanley Leung/HKFP.

The ex-lawmakers and their assistants were released on bail, while the magistrate sought a community service order report of the third defendant Yeung Lai-hong.

Leung expressed disappointment at the judgment after the verdict hearing.

He said the judgment failed to discuss a few key principles, such as whether they were lawmakers exercising their rights to attend meetings at the time, and whether the actions of the security guards were lawful.

Timeline

The defence said during this trial that, despite Beijing’s interpretation, the pair still had the right to enter the meeting room at the time of the incident.

They argued that criminal offences have no retrospective effect under Article 12 of the Bill of Rights Ordinance, suggesting that the duo should not be held criminally liable for what was legal at the time.

The prosecution summoned 13 witnesses during the trial.

Under the Public Order Ordinance, it is an offence for a minimum of three people to act together in a disorderly manner with the intent to cause others to fear that a breach of the peace will be committed. The offence is punishable by three years in prison on summary conviction.

Ellie Ng has written for Foreign Policy, the Daily Telegraph, Global Voices Online and others.