Former judge Peter Nguyen dies at 77

Former Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court, Peter Nguyen Van-tu, has died at the age of 77 this morning, Headline Daily reports, citing exclusive sources.

According to the report, Nguyen was found lying on the ground next to his bed this morning, and was rushed to the Queen Mary Hospital by ambulance and later certified dead.

Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1943 and moved to Hong Kong in 1948. He was called to the bar in England in 1970 and served as the Assistant Crown Counsel and subsequently the Crown Counsel in the Prosecution Division of the Department of Justice from 1970 to 1974.

In 1994, after 20 years of private practice as a barrister, he was appointed the Director of Public Prosecution, being the first Chinese to hold this position. Nguyen was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1995 and was the Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court from 1998 until his retirement in 2009.

Cheng Huan, SC, told Headline Daily: "I knew him when I first started my internship in Hong Kong more than 40 years ago. Nguyen Van-tu became my good friend and we defended many cases together."

Cheng described Nguyen as a kind and graceful man who made many contributions to Hong Kong and became the first Chinese criminal prosecutor in the DoJ before the handover and later became a High Court judge. He said Nguyen was very popular and had many good friends in the legal or judicial sectors.

In an interview with Headline Daily last year after the anti-extradition protests began, Nguyen said the government did make mistakes in amending the extradition law, but the chief executive was studying and formulating relevant remedial measures. He hoped that young people would not resort to violence and siad they should not vent their dissatisfaction on the police.