'Don't Take Expert Views On Chow Tsz-lok As Truth'

A lawyer has told the inquest into the death of Chow Tsz-lok during the protests of 2019 that they shouldn't just take the opinions of expert witnesses to be the truth about what happened, as their testimony could have been limited by the findings of a police investigation.

During the final submissions on day 26 of the inquest on Tuesday, the lawyer representing Chow's family, Flora Cheng, said the jurors should be open-minded and only make their judgements according to the evidence and facts.

Cheng said they should consider carefully if they agree with a government chemist that the university student might have fallen when trying to climb over a wall on the third floor of a car park in Tseung Kwan O on November 4, 2019.

She said the chemist could have been influenced by the view of a police officer who suggested the same thing.

The lawyer also reminded the jury that there was a blind spot when it came to the car park's security cameras which lost track of the 22-year-old for eight seconds, just before his apparent fall.

The coroner David Ho, however, told the court that it is standard practice for expert witnesses to base their analyses on information provided by the police.

The force's lawyer, Samson Hung said a reasonable deduction could still be made based on other evidence, and a judgement could be reached if the jury thinks Chow's death was more likely to have been an accident than any other possibility.

Hung said the evidence showed Chow had not been shot or affected by tear gas before he died, stressing that firefighters and paramedics had confirmed that police did not obstruct them from helping the injured student.

He said if anyone is to blame for delaying the ambulance sent to Chow it should be the property management firm of the nearby residential building, Kwong Ying House, for allowing cars to block the road.

Hung added that protesters had stood in the way of fire engines and this had also caused a delay in getting Chow to hospital.

The university student suffered serious head injuries in the incident and died four days later.