Justice Secretary Halts Two Private Prosecutions

Teresa Cheng has intervened in two private prosecutions this week

In Hong Kong, most prosecutions are brought on by the Department of Justice, though the common law system allows for residents to pursue charges under the Magistrates Ordinance.

Lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung was exercising that right, trying to privately prosecute over two incidents that happened during the protests last year. One was when a policeman shot 21-year-old protester Chow Pak-kwan at point blank range during a confrontation in Sai Wan Ho last November.

Ted Hui wants to get justice for the victims

The other was when a 59-year-old taxi driver, Henry Cheng Kwok-chuen, drove into some people in Sham Shui Po protesting over the government ban on using masks to hide identities last October.

However with the space of three days this week, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah has intervened to halt both these prosecutions.

While the Department of Justice does have the final say in criminal prosecutions "free from interference", but both of them? In less than a week?

Hui accused Cheng of putting politics above the rule of law, saying: "Teresa Cheng has adopted improper means to terminate the private prosecution without providing any reasonable grounds."

He continued by saying her action jeopardized the right of the DoJ to have complete control over prosecutions "free from interference".

"This, in turn, becomes a support for violence used by the police and government supporters, upending rights and wrongs and seriously harming residents' right to bring private prosecutions under the common law," he said, vowing to lodge a judicial review to challenge the decision.

The moment when Chow was shot by a police officer

In her blog post in June, Cheng wrote private prosecutions "which are groundless or frivolous or brought out of improper motives or political considerations should not be condoned".

Do these two cases fit her above descriptions of those that should not be prosecuted?

In the case of Chow the student, he was shot in the abdomen and had to have one of his kidneys and half his liver removed because of the damage caused by the bullet. Chow has had to quit studying because he has trouble concentrating and needs psychological counselling. He was charged with attempting to steal a Hong Kong policeman's gun. Hui was trying to prosecute the police officer.

Meanwhile Hui also wanted to prosecute taxi driver Cheng, though he claims to have no idea how he lost control of his car. A 23-year-old woman suffered serious fractures to both legs when the vehicle mounted the pavement outside Cheung Sha Wan government offices before smashing a store front.

Cheng's taxi crashed into protesters last November

Right after, witnesses dragged Cheng out of the taxi and beat him up, leaving him with fractured ribs and had to have four stitches in his head. But he was never charged in the incident, though two other men at the scene were charged with rioting and later released on bail.

Hui will meet the justice secretary in about 15 days' time to discuss the latter case; maybe then she will reveal the real reason behind halting the prosecutions, which has only been done twice in 51 cases from 1996 to 2013...