A Hong Kong businessman and his company have been charged with providing surrogacy services overseas and advertising them in the city, where such arrangements are illegal. Harcourt director Alfred Siu Wing-fung appeared in Eastern Court on Monday to face the summary offences charging him with taking part in, and receiving payment for, a surrogacy arrangement….
A Hong Kong court has remanded another Japanese man in custody over charges of conspiring to steal more than 27 million yen (US$171,678) in connection with a robbery outside a currency exchange shop last month in which more than 50 million yen was taken. Koki Hirose, 57, was brought before Eastern Court, in Sai Wan…
A Hong Kong court has lifted a temporary anonymity order and ruled that a barrister cannot keep his identity hidden in criminal proceedings over allegations that he twice molested a former pupil nine years ago. Eastern Court’s Principal Magistrate David Cheung Chi-wai ruled the media could report the name of the defendant, Simon So Shun-yan,…
Three homeowners at Hong Kong’s Redhill Peninsula have received fines totalling HK$275,000 (US$35,270) for their involvement in illegal building works. The Buildings Department said on Monday that the fines were handed down by Eastern Court last Thursday after the owners of three detached houses in the affluent neighbourhood pleaded guilty to carrying out unauthorised building…
A domestic helper has been sentenced to five months in jail for abusing an 11‑month‑old baby in her employer’s home in Hong Kong. Eastern Court on Friday heard the guilty plea of the 41-year-old helper, who admitted to ill-treating the baby at a flat in Happy Valley on November 11 last year. The defendant’s full…
A Hong Kong professional rugby player has been accused of molesting a patron at a bar and damaging a door bolt inside a police station while he was held in custody. Faizal Solomona Penesa, 33, on Friday appeared at Eastern Court for the first time over a count of indecent assault and another of criminal…
A Hong Kong court handed down a four-week jail sentence to a tram driver earlier convicted for careless driving that killed a three-year-old girl and injured three others, with the punishment significantly reduced due to the accident being deemed “inevitable”. Deputy Magistrate Chung Wing-sze of Eastern Court on Tuesday cited a probation officer’s report that…
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has accused the head of a Hong Kong journalists’ union of abusing the legal process by suing the newspaper over her dismissal only after her “extortionate” HK$3 million (US$385,500) proposal for settlement was rejected. Lawyers for Dow Jones Publishing Co (Asia) told Eastern Court on Thursday that Selina Cheng Kar-yue’s…
A Hong Kong barrister has been granted permission to hide his name in legal proceedings after being charged with molesting his pupil twice at his home eight years ago. The 32-year-old defendant, who represented himself at Eastern Court on Monday, applied for an anonymity order on the grounds that it could protect the identity of…
Hong Kong police have foiled a “guess who I am” phone scam, arresting two mainland Chinese men hired by a fraud syndicate and preventing an elderly woman from losing HK$100,000 (US$12,740). Chief Inspector Ma Suet-yiu of the force’s Western district on Wednesday said the arrests were made after the 78-year-old woman received a phone call…