Court refuses appeal for cops who beat Ken Tsang

One of the convicted officers, Wong Cho-shing, leaves the Court of Final Appeal after learning of its decision not to hear their appeals. Photo: RTHK

The Court of Final Appeal has refused a final bid by five policemen to challenge their convictions for beating up a pro-democracy activist during the 2014 Occupy protests.



A three-judge panel, including Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma, dismissed the application for an appeal after an hour-long hearing on Tuesday morning.



The five policemen – Chan Siu-tan, Wong Cho-shing, Lau Cheuk-ngai, Pak Wing-bun and Kwan Ka-ho – were part of a group of seven officers convicted by the District Court in 2017.



The court had found them guilty of taking activist Ken Tsang to a dark corner in Admiralty and kicking and punching him, with the trial judge saying he needed to "make an example" of the officers to make sure police would not commit similar offences in the future.



They seven were all initially jailed for two years, but two of them were later acquitted and the others had their prison terms cut to between 15 and 18 months.



The Court of Appeal judges said in their ruling last July that while the action of the officers "will have shaken everyone's faith not only in the Hong Kong police force but in the rule of law itself", they also felt the lower court's punishment had been "manifestly excessive".



In overturning the convictions of constable Lau Hing-pui and detective constable Wong Wai-ho, the court had noted that no witnesses at the trial had identified the two men in TV footage of the beating.