Two former top editors of the now-closed Stand News website in Hong Kong have lost a bid for the termination of their sedition trial.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin, who was approved by the city’s leader to oversee the case, ruled on Thursday that a fair trial was still possible for the defendants even though prosecutors failed to hand over to the defence the entirety of evidence gathered during the investigation.
Former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 53, and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, 35, earlier applied for a permanent stay of proceedings on the grounds that police officers’ destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence had barred them from running a defence of responsible journalism.
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Hong Kong editors used Stand News to promote illegal ideologies, says prosecutor
The pair face a charge of conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications over 17 articles said to have attacked the central government, the city administration and the Beijing-decreed national security law. Stand News’ holding company Best Pencil HK, also among the accused, is unrepresented in the proceedings.
During the trial, the court heard two senior inspectors from the force’s National Security Department had documented a total of 587 reports from the news site, but had only sought prosecutors’ advice on 30 of them before discarding the rest.
Hong Kong editors’ lawyer accuses prosecution of ‘making a mockery of the law’
The two editors had sought to ward off the allegations by arguing they presented views from both sides on the opposition-friendly news site.
That was no longer possible after the police copies of the stories were destroyed, their counsel previously submitted, as a police crackdown late last year had forced Stand News to remove all of its web content.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Hong Kong editors used Stand News to praise criminals and promote illegal ideologies, says prosecutor at sedition trial
- Hong Kong media and the closures of Stand News and Citizen News: where do the rest go from here?
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