93% of Hong Kong protest cases completed
Hong Kong’s judiciary has handled around 90 per cent of cases on national security and the 2019 protests.
As of February, the Judiciary had handled 93 per cent of more than 2,320 cases relating to 2019 protests and unrest, and 87 per cent of over 200 national security cases, it said in a document submitted to the Legislative Council’s Finance Committee.
The committee is scheduled to examine the Judiciary’s estimated expenditure for the current fiscal year, as well as those of various government departments, next Monday.
Of the 10,279 people arrested on protest-related charges, 2,955 people have been charged as of the end of December, police said in a press conference in February. In a response to HKFP on Tuesday, police said they would “handle the remaining cases in accordance with the law.”
Manpower shortage
The Judiciary is expected to rack up an estimated expenditure of HK$2.6 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year, up from HK$2.5 billion the previous year, and HK$2.3 billion the year before that.
It also said it had experienced a slowdown over the past year, listing factors including a backlog of cases that were rescheduled due to a reduction in court capacity during the pandemic, a continuing influx of judicial review applications, and a shortage of judicial manpower.
The Judiciary said there were 12 vacancies for judges at the Court of First Instance in 2023-24, up from the eight in 2021-22.
While the Judiciary met its target for average waiting times for civil cases last year, “certain types of criminal cases” did not meet their targets.
Amid the manpower shortage in 2023, it took an average of 442 days for criminal cases to start at the District Court – more than four times the duration of the 100-day target. The waiting time in 2022 was 350 days, and 287 days the year prior, according to the Judiciary.
At the Court of First Instance of the High Court, it took 352 days for cases to be heard in 2023. The wait in 2022 was 323 days, and it was 383 days the year before that.
“The Judiciary will continue to closely monitor the situation and make on-going efforts to seek improvements as far as practicable,” it said.
See also: US lawmakers introduce bill to sanction Hong Kong judges and prosecutors; gov’t slams ‘despicable’ intimidation
The chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association Victor Dawes previously said that US politicians’ attempts to sanction judges and prosecutors could pose a threat to the legal system and prevent the judiciary from being able to hire judges.