Barrister group asks court to overturn decision clearing democrat Margaret Ng of misconduct linked to 2019 protest conviction

Hong Kong’s professional body for barristers has asked a court to overturn its own disciplinary board’s decision clearing pro-democracy figure Margaret Ng of misconduct linked to her 2019 protest conviction.

Margaret Ng leaves Hong Kong’s High Court surrounded by reporters on August 14, 2023. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) applied for a judicial review of the board’s decision at the High Court on Friday, local media reported.

The legal challenge comes after the Barristers Disciplinary Tribunal decided in June that the complaint against Ng was unsubstantiated.

The complaint was linked to Ng’s conviction five years ago for taking part in an unauthorised assembly during the protests and unrest in 2019. She was cleared in 2023 of organising the demonstration.

Ng and six other activists pleaded not guilty to the offences that took place on August 18, 2019, when protesters and high-profile activists marched on the streets to denounce alleged police brutality.

See also: In full: Hong Kong barrister Margaret Ng’s mitigation plea given before she was sentenced over a peaceful 2019 demo

The activists were convicted in April 2021 after a trial.

District Court in Wan Chai. File photo: HKFP.

Ng, a former lawmaker who has already retired from the legal profession, was handed a year-long jail term suspended for two years. Suspended jail terms are not served unless the person convicted is found to have reoffended within a certain time frame.

Some of the defendants, including Ng, appealed, but lost their legal challenge at the Court of Final Appeal in August 2024.

‘Integrity’ of system

In the judicial review application, the HKBA said Ng’s conviction itself should have merited the establishment of the complaint.

The association cited comments made by Amanda Woodcock, the judge who found Ng and the other activists guilty, saying that she had said the defendants flouted the law and deliberately challenged police authority.

Ng took the law into her own hands to advance her political motives, further deepening societal divisions in Hong Kong, the association added.

Margaret Ng outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on July 5, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

When a complaint against a barrister is deemed substantiated by the disciplinary tribunal, the barrister can be suspended or barred from practising for good.

The HKBA said in an email to HKFP on Monday that as the “professional regulator of barristers and in furtherance of the public interest,” it must take steps “necessary to maintain the integrity of the regulatory system.”

It added that it cannot comment on the specific case in question as legal procedures are ongoing.

In the judicial review application, the HKBA noted that Ng, who is 78, already retired at the end of last year. But it said it was in the public interest that the court overturn the disciplinary board’s decision.

The court should determine that the complaint against Ng is substantiated, or order the formation of a new disciplinary board to examine the complaint, the association said.