Three Possible Verdicts In Chow Tsz-lok Inquest

The jury looking into the death of university student Chow Tsz-lok during the anti-government protests in 2019 retired on Friday morning after being told by the coroner that they could return one of three verdicts.

The five-member jury could rule that it was an unlawful killing; or an accident; or give an open verdict which means there's not enough evidence to draw a conclusion.

In giving instructions to the jurors, coroner David Ko said they could decide that it was an unlawful killing only if it was beyond a reasonable doubt.

Based on expert evidence, Ko said an unlawful killing is only possible if someone had hit Chow on the head and thrown him a storey down the car park in Tsueng Kwan O where he was found, and that the head landed first on the storey below.

The coroner said the jury could rule that Chow's death was an accident if they think there's a relatively high possibility that the student had climbed over a low wall and thought a pavement was behind it.

And Ko said the jury could return an open verdict if they didn't know why Chow fell and could not draw a conclusion on what had happened.

Ko called on the jurors not to take any pre-established positions. He told them to evaluate all the evidence before discussing the case and trying to come up with a verdict.

Chow suffered serious head injuries in November 2019 at a car park in Tseung Kwan O when an anti-government protest was held in the area.

He apparently fell from the third to the second floor of the car park, and died several days later in hospital.

The inquest into the death of the University of Science and Technology student lasted for almost four weeks, with nearly 50 witnesses summoned.