Sixtus Leung Loses Legco Storming Appeal

Ousted localist lawmaker Sixtus Leung on Wednesday began serving a four-week prison term after the High Court rejected his appeal against his conviction and sentence over the storming of a Legco meeting in 2016.

Leung was earlier convicted of illegal assembly when he and another Youngspiration lawmaker, Yau Wai-ching, tried to force their way into a Legco meeting room to take their oaths of office on November 2, 2016. 
Several of their assistants were convicted of the same offence.

Leung spoke out before Wednesday's ruling, saying the case against him shows the international community how 'ridiculous' Hong Kong has become.

"If any Legco employee or Legco member that can fall into the trap of so-called unlawful assembly in his own working place, so the message [conveyed] is 'oh, so this is Hong Kong right now'," Leung said.

Leung’s lawyer argued in an earlier hearing that Legco guards had broken the law for stopping him and Yau from performing their duties as lawmakers-elect.

The defence also said the magistrate had made a mistake in her ruling that the prosecution did not have to prove Leung had any intent to commit an offence.

But the Court of First Instance rejected the argument. Justice Wilson Chan said even if Leung genuinely believed he had the right to enter the meeting room, he could still be held liable for charging at the security guards.

The judge said the trial magistrate was right to point out that the defendant’s 'violent' acts had obviously exceeded the reasonable limit and were therefore unlawful. He said despite being a lawmaker at the time, Leung could not be excused for any criminal acts committed at a Legco meeting.

Leung and Yau were ousted as part of the oath-taking controversy at the start of the Legco term in 2016.