Hong Kong's Court of Appeal upheld on Tuesday a court decision to deny a trial by jury to the first person charged under a new national security law, a landmark decision that marks a departure from the global financial hub's common law tradition.
Last month, the Court of First Instance in the High Court ruled that Tong Ying-kit would face a trial without jury, citing "a perceived risk of the personal safety of jurors and their family members." His lawyer appealed.
"Although jury trial is the conventional mode of trial in the Court of First Instance, it should not be assumed to be the only means of achieving fairness in the criminal process," according to a summary of the decision by judges Jeremy Poon, Wally Yeung and Johnson Lam.