Cheng Cho-lam v. The Queen
Read the full judgment text of CACC 460/1974 on BabelCite. This Court of Appeal judgment.
1. The appellant was found guilty of being in possession of dangerous drugs for the purpose of unlawful trafficking and was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. He was unrepresented.
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CACC000460/1974 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG (APPELLATE JURISDICTION) CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 460 OF 1974 -----------------
Coram: Briggs, C.J. Date of Judgment: 27th July, 1974. ----------------- JUDGMENT ----------------- 1. The appellant was found guilty of being in possession of dangerous drugs for the purpose of unlawful trafficking and was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. He was unrepresented. 2. Various grounds of appeal were filed and it is only necessary to deal with one. This ground was that the appellant is Chiu Chow and this fact was known to the magistrate who tried the case. The appellant gave evidence in the court below and called witnesses. Their evidence was also given in the Chiu Chow dialect. However, the witnesses called for the prosecution, who were police witnesses, gave their evidence in Punti. It is not recorded whether the evidence of the prosecution witnesses was interpreted into the Chiu Chow dialect for the benefit of the appellant. 3. In those circumstances, I ordered that the conviction and sentence imposed in this case be set aside and that the case be retried by another magistrate. I also ordered that there be a speedy retrial.
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