Man has conviction for online bomb threats overturned

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Man has conviction for online bomb threats overturned ... because charge doesn’t cover internet

Chan Yau-hei was accused of outraging public decency but top court rules the charge "is not one that comfortably fits into the modern internet age".

PUBLISHED : Friday, 07 March, 2014, 5:56pm
UPDATED : Friday, 07 March, 2014, 6:21pm

Julie Chu [email protected]

Chan Yau-hei posted online messages calling on people to bomb the central government's liaison office, above. Photo: Reuters

A jobless man who posted a message online inciting people to bomb the central government’s liaison office has had his conviction overturned by Hong Kong’s top court – because the charge he faced does not cover the internet.

Chan Yau-hei, 26, posted a message on the hkgolden.com forum in June 2010 saying: “We have to learn from the Jewish people and bomb the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government”. He was convicted in November of that year on a charge of outraging public decency and was sentenced to 12 months probation.

But on Friday five judges from the Court of Final Appeal quashed the conviction, ruling that the charge was inappropriate.

“The common law offence of outraging public decency, which has a history going back at least 350 years, is not one that comfortably fits into the modern internet age,” said the judgment.

For the charge to stick, the judges said the offence needed to have been committed in a physical, tangible place. But the internet was a medium, and therefore did not count.

However, the judges found Chan’s message was a straightforward and unambiguous incitement, and that there was an “aggravating feature”.

Chan’s case provided a strong argument for introducing laws to criminalise such postings, the judges added.

Following Chan’s posting a reporter from a Chinese newspaper made an enquiry to the police and Chan was arrested at his home in North Point on June 19, 2010.

In November that year, Eastern Court convicted Chan on one count of committing an act outraging public decency.

He appealed his conviction and made a reversal of plea application at the Court of First Instance in November 2011. But his application was refused by a High Court judge. He then brought the case to the top court.