Top Hong Kong Court Rules Against Government Bid to Expand Riot Prosecutions

Top Hong Kong Court Rules Against Government Bid to Expand Riot Prosecutions
Protesters chant slogans and gesture during a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images
Reuters
Updated:

HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s top court on Thursday quashed attempts by the city’s government to prosecute people for rioting or “illegal assembly” even without being present at the scene. A ruling lawyer described it as a landmark decision.

The five-judge panel in Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, headed by Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, unanimously rejected an earlier ruling by a lower appeal court that people, such as supporters, could be criminally liable without being actually present under the common law doctrine of “joint enterprise.”