Court Rejects Govt's Appeal Bid On Avery Ng Case

The High Court has rejected the government’s request to take an appeal to the city's top court over the acquittal of activist Avery Ng who had been accused of throwing a sandwich at former Chief Executive CY Leung.

Leung ducked and the tuna sandwich missed him, hitting a police officer instead.

A magistrate had convicted the League of Social Democrats chairman of common assault and gave him a three-week jail term in October 2017.

But on appeal, High Court judge Joseph Yau had overturned the conviction, saying news footage showed that the policeman had looked calm at the time of the sandwich-throwing and it wasn't clear whether it would have struck the officer if he hadn't deliberately extended his arm.

The Department of Justice then decided to challenge Yau's ruling, citing “important legal points”.

The government had told the court that the comments regarding the police officer were not raised by either side in Ng's trial in 2017, or during the appeal hearing, and therefore neither the prosecution nor the defence was given the opportunity to respond.

Justice Yau, who also presided over the hearing on the bid to appeal, said he disagrees with the Department of Justice that this case involves extensive and major legal importance.

The government can still take its leave for appeal directly to the Court of Final Appeal if it chooses to.