Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Interpreter reliability

Legal area

Court

15 Nov 2023

RE RAHMAN S M SHAFIQUR

Citation

[2023] HKCA 1266
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CAMP517/2022

The Court refused the extension because the applicant proffered no reasonable excuse for delay, the decision was properly served, and the intended appeal lacked any reasonably arguable basis: the applicant failed to identify any legal error, procedural unfairness or irrationality in the Board's detailed adverse credibility findings and produced no particulars or evidence about alleged interpreter failings, so there was no prospect of success and no basis to extend time.
23 Aug 1996

R. v. WONG HUI CHING

Citation

R. v. WONG HUI CHING
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCMA722/1996

The appeal is allowed and conviction quashed because the magistrate failed to address central inconsistencies between the police evidence and the private customer's evidence (and unresolved interpreter inconsistencies), omissions that undermined the safety of the conviction and the assessment of the confession's voluntariness and reliability.
3 May 1991

THE QUEEN v. VU DUC HOA

Citation

THE QUEEN v. VU DUC HOA
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCMA1599/1990

Where interviews extend over many hours into the early morning and evidence indicates risk of sapping the accused's will, the appellate court will require the trial magistrate to be seen to consider the residual discretion to exclude statements on grounds of unfairness; applying this, convictions founded primarily on late‑night confessions obtained under such circumstances may be unsafe and should be quashed, while other convictions supported by independent evidence may stand.

Hong Kong Case Law

RE RAHMAN S M SHAFIQUR

R. v. WONG HUI CHING

THE QUEEN v. VU DUC HOA