Hong Kong police officers lose appeal over framing homeless man, evidence cover-up

Four disgraced Hong Kong police officers have lost their appeal against convictions and jail terms for framing a homeless man for drug possession and destroying evidence of the cover-up six years ago.

In a written judgment on Thursday, the Court of Appeal said the officers must have intended to pervert the course of justice when they tried to obstruct surveillance cameras while colleagues fabricated evidence against a street sleeper during an anti-drug operation on February 4, 2020.

The three presiding judges rejected the officers’ claims that they did not intend to prejudice subsequent legal proceedings and that tampering with surveillance footage had no material impact on the prosecution.

“Common sense tells us that merging evidence collected at two locations, covering it with blankets and placing it in a bag while acting as if nothing had happened is inherently absurd,” Mr Justice Derek Pang Wai-cheong said on behalf of the panel.

“This course of conduct alone provides a sufficient basis to infer that officers were fabricating evidence, and that attempts to obstruct cameras were aimed at avoiding any record of the misconduct.”

The court also declined to reduce the four officers’ sentences, citing the seriousness of the offences and their adverse impact on the administration of justice.

Constables Leung Fei-pang, Pong Chun-sze, Chan Sau-yip and Wan Pak-sze were among six officers convicted of five counts of perverting the course of justice over the incident at Tung Chau Street Park in Sham Shui Po.