Hong Kong murder suspect faces retrial after jury deadlocks on psychosis defence

A former software developer from South Africa, Matthew Choi, is set to face a retrial in Hong Kong after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on whether or not he committed a murder while suffering from psychosis. The 23-day trial concluded on Wednesday with a hung jury as the seven-member panel debated behind closed doors for more than a day.

Choi, now 36, is accused of stabbing 48-year-old taxi driver Wai Kim-hung in the neck outside the WE hotel in Sai Ying Pun at 4.52am on October 12, 2021. After the attack, Choi fled the scene, but was quickly identified by police who found his bloodstained jacket and mobile phone near the taxi. He was arrested near Yung Shue Wan Ferry Pier the following day.

Choi's defense argued that he was suffering from psychosis at the time of the murder. Lawyers claimed that the meat cleaver he was seen carrying, engraved with the words "my ELF weapon", was intended to protect him against perceived government attacks, as Choi believed he was being harassed by secret police using low-frequency electromagnetic waves. This belief arose from Choi's experience during the 2019 anti-government protests, when he felt unsafe due to police involvement.

Despite a psychiatric assessment in 2019 concluding that Choi was not mentally ill, he maintained that he had a "radical" personality. He also claimed that surveillance footage of his whereabouts on the day of the murder was a "digital fake" designed to frame him.