An opportunity to review the current sentencing practice in drug trafficking cases presented itself to the Court of Appeal (Hon Lunn VP, Macrae VP and McWalters JA) in HKSAR v Kilima Abubakar Abbas [...
Criminal law and procedure - sexual offences - indecent assault, contrary to s.122 - indecent acts with girl aged 13 but whom defendant believed was aged 17 - defence of honest and reasonable belief...
Criminal evidence - expert evidence - admissibility - testimony of specialist psychiatrist on consumption rates of certain drugs in Hong Kong - whether testimony relevant and reliable - whether...
Appeal grounds – appeal procedure
In Wiwik Lestari, Counsel for the Applicant had advanced 10 grounds of appeal. The Court had not found it necessary to invite the Prosecution to reply to any...
Dangerous drugs – trafficking - knowledge
The Applicant was convicted after trial of trafficking in 572 grammes of cocaine. The issue at trial was the Applicant’s knowledge that she was carrying...
Criminal Sentencing - Dangerous Drugs – previous convictions - very different offences calling for very different levels of punishment and/or types of sentence
D was convicted, on his own plea, of...
Meanings of "drive" and "use" an unlicensed vehicle - Road Traffic Ordinance
The Defendant was charged with the offence of using an unlicensed vehicle contrary to ss. 52(1)(a) and 52(10)(a) of the...
In HKSAR v Tam Ho Nam, FACC 3/2017, it was not in dispute that the appellant (then aged 18) killed his girlfriend who was found to have sustained 64 wounds. The appellant claimed that at the time of...
HKSAR v Choi Wai Lun, HCMA 620/2016 involved an under-aged girl ("PW1") offering sex services with a fee schedule through an adult website. PW1 falsely represented that she was aged 17. The...
Hearsay – admissibility – directions to the jury
Customs Officers intercepted a parcel arriving in Hong Kong finding that it contained 1.07 kg of cocaine. A name, address and telephone number was...
In HKSAR v Nguyen Anh Nga, FACC 17 of 2016 (on appeal from CACC 424 of 2012), the Court of Final Appeal addressed directions that must be given by a Judge in relation to inferences, holding that...
In HKSAR v Law Wing Fai (HCMA 476 of 2016) and HKSAR v Gilbert Henry Collins (HCMA 21 of 2017), the Court of Appeal answered the following question: whether a driver who drink-drives, and has a valid...
On 26 January 2017, the Court of First Instance handed down a judgment on s.35G of Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) (“PDPO”) in HKSAR v Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, HCMA 624/...
Admissions – equivocal or ambiguous statements
The Appellant was directed to go through a customs inspection when she arrived at Hong Kong International Airport from Kuala Lumpur in 2012. ...
Corruption and bribery offences – meaning of “agent” and “other document” for the purpose of s. 9(3) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance – deception on company by sole directors of that company...
In September 2016, we reported on the decision by the Appeal Committee of the Court of Final Appeal (“CFA”) to grant leave to appeal to the CFA on the following question:
“May a single Justice of...
Recent Court of Appeal Judgements allowing the appeals on three drug-trafficking convictions demonstrate the difficulties in addressing juries on how to deal with evidence put before them....
In HKSAR v Wan Thomas & Ors (HCMA 700/2013), the first defendant had set up a company to “assist the family and friends of persons in custody so that mutual communication can be...
Trial – jury – jury required by trial judge to deliberate overnight – whether lack of appropriate direction from judge gave rise to risk of placing jury under unacceptable pressure to deliver verdict...
Upon being convicted of burglary by a District Court Judge, MD Emran Hossain (“Hossain”) was sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment. He sought leave to appeal against conviction and sentence (the “leave...