2 Hong Kong students cleared of rioting in 2019 after judge finds police testimony ‘contrived’
Hong Kong Free Press
Two university students have been acquitted of rioting in 2019 after a judge found the testimonies of two police officers “contrived”.
Delivering his verdict at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Monday, Deputy District Judge Pang Leung-ting said there were “lots of issues” with the testimonies given by two officers. Both were involved in the defendants’ arrests on November 12, 2019, at the height of protests sparked that summer by a proposed amendment to the city’s extradition bill.
Fan Tsz-suet and To Mei-yi, students at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, were arrested and charged with rioting outside Tate’s Cairn Tunnel near the university in Sha Tin that day. A third defendant, Lo Ching-ting, pleaded guilty last September.
According to the case details, between 10 and 20 people wearing black gathered outside the tunnel’s administration building early that morning, after people made calls online for protesters to set up barricades across the city.
On Monday, Pang said the officer who arrested Lo had altered his testimony during his re-examination, local outlet The Witness reported.
After saying in a statement written on the day of the protest that he had only seen two defendants, over a year later, the officer said that all three defendants were at the rear of a group of protesters.
Pang added that the officer had altered his testimony without providing any additional information.
The other officer, a sergeant who arrested Fan, similarly claimed that there were three women at the rear of the group on November 12, more than a year after an initial report without that detail was filed, Pang said.
Judge Pang called the sergeant’s observations ”extremely contrived,” as his description of To did not match up with her appearance as captured on video.
Pang also said that while the two defendants acquitted on Monday were “quite suspicious,” the prosecution did not present substantial circumstantial evidence and was not able to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the defendants were guilty of rioting simply based on their appearances.
The prosecution said last September that even though there was no evidence that Fan and To engaged in any violent acts, they were not “innocent passersby,” judging from their clothes, where they were located, and the similarity of their actions and escape routes with other protesters.
The 2019 protests escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
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