Court adjourns national security bail hearing

Chief magistrate Victor So adjourned the hearing at around 8.30pm, saying the court will reconvene at 10am on Thursday, after learning that some defendants would like to make additional submissions.

At the start of the hearing on Wednesday, some defence lawyers requested that the court remove reporting restrictions for the bail hearing, saying journalists had asked about the matter.

The lawyers said lifting the restrictions would allow the public to better understand how prosecutors handle national security cases.

But the prosecution objected to the request, saying such an arrangement may be unfair to both sides and may obstruct ongoing police investigation.

Defence lawyers representing the 47 defendants finished making their bail applications for their clients on Wednesday, but some indicated in the evening that they hoped to make supplementary submissions.

During the session, lawyers for Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam, Lee Yue-shun, Lam Cheuk-ting, Clarisse Yeung and Gwyneth Ho told the court their clients had decided they no longer needed their services.

This allowed Yeung, Kwok and Tam to directly address the court, representing themselves. Their emotional accounts prompted some reporters in the press room to sob, though what they said are covered by reporting restrictions.

The magistrate said he will continue to listen to supplementary submissions from at least 10 defendants when the hearing resumes on Thursday morning.

He added he will also address the defence requests for removing reporting restrictions, and may hand down his bail decisions on the same day if time permits.