Two men were found guilty today of "causing grievous bodily harm and stealing a motorcycle" in connection with the 2014 assault of journalist Kevin Lau, but have refused to say who ordered the attack.
This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 13 August 2015.
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Hong Kong to work quickly and efficiently to identify the mastermind of the February 2014 attack on newspaper editor Kevin Lau Chun-to and ensure there is full justice in the case. Two men identified as Yip Kim-wah and Wong Chi-wah were found guilty today of “causing grievous bodily harm and stealing a motorcycle” in the assault, but have refused to say who ordered the attack, reports said. They are expected to be sentenced on August 21, 2015.
“It is hard to believe that Hong Kong’s police and prosecutors’ office have been unable to identify the person or people who gave the order to carry out this vicious assault on Kevin Lau Chun-to,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. “The public outrage that followed the appalling cleaver attack seems not to have been met with the appropriate level of prosecutorial zeal. We expect better from Hong Kong’s judicial system.”
Lau was attacked on the morning of February 26, 2014, as he got out of his car in a residential neighborhood, news reports said. One assailant used a cleaver to slash him three times in his back and leg and fled the scene on a motorcycle ridden by another man, police told CPJ. The journalist underwent emergency surgery and survived. Lau was the chief editor of the Chinese-language daily Ming Pao, before he was dismissed from that role and later named chief operating officer of a subsidiary of the publication.
For more data and analysis, visit CPJ’s China page.
