Hongkonger convicted over 2019 Yuen Long riot after judge overturns acquittal

A Hong Kong man has been convicted of rioting with a white-clan mob at a railway station during the 2019 anti-government unrest after a judge overturned his acquittal.

The District Court on Thursday reversed its original findings that were in favour of transport worker Wong Chi-wing, 60, ruling that he was indeed one of the participants in the attack at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019, according to the overall evidence.

The defendant, a Yuen Long resident, was the only one of eight defendants cleared in the 2021 trial, in which the identification of suspects became a major issue in contention.

District Judge Eddie Yip Chor-man found insufficient evidence to support Wong’s conviction, highlighting differences in facial features between him and an assailant caught on camera during the incident.

But the Court of Appeal ruled that the conclusion was “perverse” and made without full consideration of incriminating circumstantial evidence, including Wong’s timing of his leaving and returning home that night and the similar outfit seized from his residence.

Yip said on Thursday that he acknowledged he placed too much reliance on CCTV footage that only showed the assailant wearing a mask, while overlooking those in which he apparently removed his facial covering.