Govt Seeks Appeal Over Avery Ng Sandwich Saga

The government on Friday sought permission to ask the city's top court to overturn activist Avery Ng's acquittal over the throwing of a tuna sandwich at former Chief Executive CY Leung.

Ng, the chairman of the League of Social Democrats, won an appeal in March against a common assault conviction and three-month prison over the incident at a protest in 2016. The sandwich didn't actually hit Leung, with a policeman blocking it with his arm.

High Court judge Joseph Yau had quashed 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.

But the Department of Justice is challenging Yau's ruling, citing “important legal points”.

Prosecution lawyer Ned Lai 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.

Yau himself was presiding over Friday's hearing and he said he would announce his decision at a later date on whether the government can take its case to the Court of Final Appeal.