Activist given 4-month jail term over leak

A leading radical politician in Hong Kong was sentenced to four months in jail on Monday for disclosing details of an investigation by local antigraft watchdog — the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Avery Ng Man-yuen, chairman of the League of Social Democrats, was granted HK$20,000 bail to file an appeal. He was required to hand over all travel documents within 72 hours to ensure he stays in Hong Kong.

At the Eastern Court, Magistrate Cheng Lim-chi said Ng had shown “no remorse” from start to end of the trial. He reiterated that the defendant committed the offense merely to raise his own profile, rather than safeguard “public interest” — as Ng had argued.

Ng was found guilty of three counts of disclosing the identity of individuals being investigated, breaching Section 30 (1) (b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.

The jail term will also cost Ng his political career. He was defeated twice in 2012 and 2016 Legislative Council elections. According to the city’s laws, any person imprisoned for more than three months will lose the right to be nominated as a lawmaker for five years.

In 2016, Ng lodged a complaint against Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee — Hong Kong’s permanent secretary for home affairs at the time — and two other people to ICAC. After that, Ng revealed on his social media platforms, and to reporters, that Fung was under ICAC investigation; Ng said he had been invited to give a testimony as a complainant — despite investigators warning him several times not to reveal it.

Under the ordinance, any person who leaks details of an ICAC investigation or the identity of the person being investigated without lawful authority or a reasonable excuse has committed an offense. The maximum penalty is one year in prison and a HK$20,000 fine.

This is necessary to prevent the suspect under investigation from taking action which might eliminate evidence or could help them abscond.

Instead of imprisonment, Ng’s lawyer suggested a community service order from 200 to 240 hours as Ng had “basically accepted” the conviction according to a community service report.

The magistrate rejected the proposal as such an order could only apply to defendants who had “sincerely” shown remorse — which was not obvious from Ng’s behavior.

This is not the first time Ng has broken the law. Last year, he was sentenced to three weeks’ jail for throwing an object at then chief executive Leung Chun-ying in 2016.