Ken Tsang Assault Appeal Decision Reserved

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision on whether to hear appeals from three policeman who were convicted last year of assaulting activist Ken Tsang during the 2014 Occupy protests. Four others found guilty of the same offence have already been granted leave to lodge an appeal.

Detective Sergeant Pak Wing-bun, along with Detective Constables Chan Siu-tan and Kwan Ka-ho were all sentenced to two years in prison for beating Ken Tsang in Tamar Park.

In their final arguments to the Court of Appeal, counsel for Chan and Kwan said the activist was not a credible witness – noting that he had originally thought there were only six people present during the assault, before he saw video footage of the incident.

She also said the trial judge had wrongly concluded that her clients were at the scene by relying on features of their shoes – which are very common.

But the prosecutor shot back, saying the shoe features was used only as supporting evidence to back up Tsang’s accounts, and video evidence of the beating.

For his part, Pak’s lawyer said there was no proof that the video itself is authentic, and said the striped shirt that his client purportedly wore looked different in the videos and photos submitted to the court.

He said the colours were different, as were the width of the stripes.

The prosecution countered that this point was not raised during the trial. He also said the videos were reliable, because they were taken with different cameras depicting the same event.