Jason Poon jailed for one month for contempt of court

Businessman Jason Poon was on Thursday sentenced to one month in prison after making abusive remarks against Labour Tribunal judicial officers and leaking trial transcripts on social media. The Court of First Instance of the High Court heard that Poon had applied for the transcript of a Labour Tribunal case and signed an undertaking to only use it for those proceedings. However, Poon later uploaded screenshots of parts of the document in two public posts on his Facebook page following a Labour Tribunal ruling made against him. The court also heard that Poon had uploaded two videos to his YouTube channel, in which he made abusive remarks against Labour Tribunal judicial officers, such as by calling them “rubbish”. Poon earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of contempt of court. In her sentencing, Judge Queeny Au-yeung stated that Poon’s remarks scandalised the Labour Tribunal and may have a negative effect “on public confidence in the due administration of justice.” The judge called Poon’s behaviour as “neither causal, accidental or unintentional.” In addition to the one-month prison term, Poon was also ordered to pay the prosecution cost of more than HK$262,000. Edited by Tony Sabine