A Hong Kong man who tried to attack the magistrate with a knife is being kept under special surveillance

A Hong Kong court has ordered that a man who tried to attack a magistrate with a knife be remanded in custody under special supervision after being told the suspect is having suicidal thoughts.

Lee Ching-tat, 32, was brought to Kowloon District Court on Wednesday, where he allegedly tried to injure magistrate Edward Wong Ching-yu in the same building two days earlier.

The prosecutor told magistrate Philip Chan Chee-fai, who presided over the hearing, that the suspect was a patient at a psychiatric clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, and that a doctor had assessed him as a person prone to violence .

Prosecutors asked the court to order the Correctional Services Department to place Lee under special supervision because he wrote the words “I want to end my life” on the charge sheet while in police custody.

“That objective fact led us to believe that the suspect has a tendency to harm himself,” the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor asked for the case to be postponed until January 3 to further investigate the personal belongings Lee brought into court on Monday. There were four bottles of liquid and two bottles of powder, the substances of which had yet to be identified.