Judge rejects Hong Kong envoy’s request to lift curfew for bail in spy case trial
A judge on Friday rejected the request by a Hong Kong official who is facing spying charges to lift a daily curfew from the bail conditions, and ordered him and his alleged accomplice to report back for another hearing within a month.
Yuen Chung-biu (known as Bill Yuen), 64, manager of the HKSARG’s Economic and Trade Office in London, and 38-year-old security firm owner and border force officer at Heathrow Airport Wai Chi-leung, aka Peter Wai, appeared this morning at London’s Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey.
Both in navy-coloured suits with blue ties, Yuen and Wai arrived separately at the court about two hours ahead of what was listed as a pre-trial hearing, which started at 11:30am before Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb. No plea was taken and the duo only raised their hands when asked to confirm their identity.
They were arrested earlier this year for assisting a foreign intelligence service and foreign interference under Britain’s national security law, and have been released on bail subject to police monitoring of mobile communications, confiscation of travel documents, and curfew from 10pm to 5am.
Yuen’s barrister Michael Hick, who has recently taken up the brief following a change of Yuen’s defence team, made several procedural requests to the court including the need for a more detailed case summary, and longer deadlines for the defendants to consider case dismissal and request for anonymity. The barrister also applied for the court to lift the curfew requirement.
Wai’s barrister Mark Heywood, KC, also complained about difficulties with handling large amount of case materials, and agreed with Hick’s request for additional time.
But the prosecution’s barrister Duncan Atkinson objected to Yuen’s request regarding the curfew, and said the original prosecution timetable and the case materials had already provided sufficient room for the defendants to put up a defence.
Justice Cheema-Grubb said she considered the curfew as a necessary and significant part of the bail conditions and must continue. After making certain adjustments to the timetable, the judge ordered the defendants to appear again at another pre-trial hearing on 22 November. She also ordered that the location of the trial by jury, which was scheduled to be held at the Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court on 10 February 2025, be moved back to the Old Bailey.
Yuen and Wai deliberately avoided each other today, but both interacted with the media for the first time. When asked by Green Bean Media on whether he was still on full duty at the HKETO, Yuen smiled, and casually tapped the shoulder of a journalist, saying, “I am sorry, very sorry.” In contrast, a stony-faced Wai snapped back at reporters’ questions on how he has been keeping since May. “You can ask whatever you want,” Wai said, before storming away down the hall.
Both last attended a hearing at the Old Bailey on 24 May. Before that, they first appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 13 May 2024. The court heard that between 20 December 2023 and 2 May this year, Yuen, Wai and the now-deceased third defendant Matthew Trickett agreed to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception that were likely to assist a foreign intelligence service, contrary to the National Security Act 2023. It is also alleged that they forced entry into a UK residential address on 1 May, which constituted an interference effect contrary to the Act.
Media attendance of today’s hearing was less intense comparing to the last hearing. In contrast, officials from the HKETO, led by its Deputy Director-General Amy Wong Hoi-ling and Assistant Director-General Stanley Woo Man-hong, arrived early in the morning and managed to secure the first in the queue to grab seats at the public gallery.
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