'Kidnapped' Howard Lam appeals against conviction

Howard Lam is hoping to overturn his conviction for lying to the police. File photo: RTHK

Veteran Democratic Party campaigner Howard Lam has launched an appeal against his conviction and five-month jail sentence for lying to the police.



His lawyers told the High Court on Monday that a West Kowloon magistrate had erred in convicting him, including being too reliant on the identification of Lam by a police officer in security camera footage.



The footage was said to disprove Lam's claim that he was kidnapped by Putonghua-speaking men in Mong Kok in August 2017 before being tortured with a staple-firing gun and dumped half-naked on a beach in Sai Kung.



The lawyers also told the court that the person seen wandering around in the video footage could be someone deliberately pretending to be Lam.



Lam had claimed that two days before the alleged kidnapping he had received a telephone call warning him to drop his plan to give an autographed photo of footballer Lionel Messi to the wife of late Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.



Lam has been on bail since his conviction, pending this appeal.