Ruling In Howard Lam Kidnap Case Set For March 15

A lawyer for a veteran Democratic Party member accused of lying to the police about being kidnapped has told a court that prosecutors have failed to prove the abduction never occurred, and that the injuries his client suffered were consistent with his claims.

Howard Lam had been flanked by senior members of the party when he sensationally announced in August 2017 that he had been snatched from the streets of Mong Kok by Mandarin-speaking men who bundled him into a van and tortured him by firing staples into his thighs.

Lam had said he was knocked unconscious with some kind of anaesthetic and was dumped half-naked on a beach in Sai Kung. He told the media at the time that he had earlier been threatened over a plan to send a photograph of the footballer Lionel Messi to the wife of the late Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

In a final submission to West Kowloon Court on Monday, Lam's lawyer said time stamps on surveillance camera footage the prosecution had presented to the court showing his client in Mong Kok on the day in question could not be verified as being accurate.

He also noted that not all of the area was covered by CCTV.

He said the prosecution had failed to prove that his client had definitely not been abducted and Lam should therefore be acquitted.

But summing up its case against Lam, the prosecution noted that not a single witness in the busy streets of Mong Kok had seen anything unusual on the day of the alleged kidnap.

The prosecutor said the fact that Lam did not remove the staples in his thighs before calling a press conference to make his revelations suggested he was simply "staging a show".

His behaviour didn't match the reaction people would expect of someone who had just been tortured, the court was told.

The case was adjourned until March 15 when the magistrate is expected to deliver a ruling.