Jury Photos Scare Disrupts Mong Kok Riot Trial

A trial over the Mong Kok riot in 2016 was disrupted on Friday, as bailiffs confronted a man taking photos in the courtroom. Photography is banned in the city's courts, and it's feared the man was taking pictures of the jury.

The man, who said he was a tourist from the mainland, is believed to have taken at least seven photographs and made a video with his phone, as the rioting trial continued of localist Edward Leung and four other male defendants.

A woman sitting near the man alerted court officials after she saw him point his phone in the direction of the jury bench before and during the hearing.

Bailiffs watched as he deleted the material from his phone, but it's thought he had already shared at least one photo on a messaging app.

The court officers said they couldn't see the images very clearly because they were so small. They said they weren't told at first that the man had shared the images on the app, and admitted they hadn't tried to get the man's identity.

The judge explained to the jurors what had happened and sought to reassure them that she didn't think the man had been targeting them in any way.

Madam Justice Anthea Pang said she believed it was just a careless mistake by someone who wasn't familiar with the legal procedures in Hong Kong.

She conceded that she couldn't be sure whether any of the photos would end up in the public domain. But she said anyone who published such a photo would be breaking the law.

The incident happened as the prosecution began calling witnesses.

A hygiene officer told the court that before violent protests broke out on the evening of February 8, 2016, he saw several people gathering on Portland Street in Mong Kok wearing T-shirts printed with the name “Hong Kong Indigenous” – the pro-independence group Leung was a member of at the time.

The witness said his colleagues were ready to arrest unlicensed hawkers in the area, but he asked the command centre to call off the operation after he saw some of his colleagues being shouted at.

The trial is expected to last several more weeks.