Judges slam lawyers, quash convictions of 11 Hong Kong villagers in ‘ding’ case

A Hong Kong appellate court has quashed the convictions of 11 men who were found guilty of conspiring to fraudulently obtain building licences from the government more than a decade ago, finding that they did not receive a fair trial because of their lawyers’ incompetence. In a written judgment delivered on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal ruled that the appellants’ lawyers failed to act in their clients’ best interests by adopting a defence strategy that best suited a developer prosecuted in the...