Activist Beaten by Hong Kong Police Convicted of Assaulting Them


2016.05.27
Activist Beaten by Hong Kong Police Convicted of Assaulting Them Hong Kong Civic Party member Ken Tsang speaks to journalists after his conviction for assaulting police officers, May 26, 2016.
RFA/Chen Pan

Pro-democracy politician Ken Tsang, who was found guilty of assaulting police officers and resisting arrest during the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, says he will press ahead to build his case against seven police officers who were filmed beating him up in a dark corner during the protests.

"The case against the seven police officers is scheduled to be heard at the District Court on June 1," Tsang, who is a member of the pan-democratic Civic Party, told reporters after being found guilty by a magistrate at the Kowloon City Court of assault and resisting arrest.

The officers were charged after they were filmed live by a cameraman from Hong Kong broadcaster TVB in November 2014.Video footage streamed lived from protests on Oct. 15, 2014 showed Tsang being beaten and kicked by a group of police officers in a dark area while they were clearing a main road of protesters in a violent crackdown.

Tsang later showed journalists his injuries, and the seven officers—two inspectors and five constables—were later arrested on suspicion of "assault resulting in grievous body harm."

They were charged only after Tsang's lawyers applied for a judicial review in the face of long delays. All seven have denied one count of causing Tsang grievous bodily harm with intent, while one of them has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of common assault, local media reported.

"I will be putting in every effort to collate my evidence," Tsang told reporters on Thursday. "I am the main witness in this case, and I will be working with the court to provide and gather the evidence."

Tsang said he was "very disappointed" by his conviction on Thursday, and fears the result will affect the outcome of the police officers' trial.

"I am worried that the two cases will influence each other, so I hope that the department of justice will ensure that the arrangements are fair and impartial," he said.

'No doubt'

Kowloon City Court magistrate Peter Law said there was "no doubt" that Tsang had intentionally assaulted the officers by pouring liquid on them, but dropped charges related to Tsang's reaction after he was pepper-sprayed by the police, saying that such a reaction was "natural."

Tsang will be sentenced on May 30, and is currently out on bail.

Public anger soared in the wake of the clashes that marked the start of the Occupy Central, or Umbrella Movement, bringing hundreds of thousands of people onto the city's streets at its height, many of them calling for fully democratic elections.

Dozens of protesters holding the iconic yellow umbrella that came to symbolize the calls for universal suffrage gathered outside the Kowloon court on Thursday, chanted slogans saying Tsang's prosecution was politically motivated.

Hong Kong was promised a "high degree of autonomy" under the terms of its 1997 return to Chinese rule, within the "one country, two systems" framework agreed between British and Chinese officials and enshrined in its mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

In June 2014, an unofficial referendum saw 400,000 people vote in favor of universal suffrage and public nominations, in spite of a central government white paper spelling out that the city's autonomy was still subject to the will of Beijing, and didn't constitute full autonomy, nor decentralized power.

The Occupy movement was sparked by an Aug. 31, 2014 electoral reform plan outlined by China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC) that would allow all of Hong Kong's five million eligible voters to cast a ballot in the 2017 race for the next chief executive, but would have limited the slate to candidates approved by Beijing.

It was rejected by pan-democratic lawmakers and Occupy Central protesters as "fake universal suffrage."

Hong Kong lawmakers dealt a death blow to Beijing's electoral reform package on June 18, in a humiliating defeat for Hong Kong's chief executive Leung Chun-ying and for Chinese officials.

Reported by Lam Kwok-lap for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Chen Pan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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