A Hong Kong social worker who was cleared of rioting during a 2019 protest but is being retried after the government successfully appealed her acquittal did not disrupt the peace nor obstruct police activities, her lawyer has argued.
Hong Kong social worker Jackie Chen outside District Court on December 13, 2024. Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP.
The 48-year-old appeared at District Court on Friday to hear the closing arguments from the prosecution and the defence. The social worker has pleaded not guilty to one count of rioting in relation to a protest on August 31, 2019. That day, demonstrators set up road blocks in Wan Chai and Admiralty, clashing with police officers who deployed tear gas and water cannon to disperse them.
Chen was acquitted during a trial four years ago after the judge said her conduct and speech did not amount to taking part in an unlawful assembly, let alone a riot. But the government successfully challenged the verdict, and her case was returned to the District Court for a second trial.
During the retrial, which began last Monday, the court heard that Chen held up a loudspeaker during the protest and urged police to act with constraint.
The prosecution summoned five police officers who were deployed to handle the protest, including the officer who arrested Chen, as witnesses. Chen did not testify, nor did the defence call any witnesses.
On Friday, after the prosecution said it had little more to add than the written closing submissions it had handed to the court, barrister Hector Pun wrapped up the defence’s arguments.
Wan Chai during a protest on August 31, 2019. Photo: May James/HKFP.
Pun said Chen had not disrupted the peace at the protest. Additionally, there was no evidence to suggest that her words or actions had obstructed or delayed police enforcement actions, he said. Nor had she engaged in acts such as throwing petrol bombs or aiming laser pens like some other protesters at the scene.
The barrister said Chen, talking through a loudspeaker, had told police to restrain themselves, to give people time to retreat, and not to open fire.
He said he rejected the prosecution’s argument that Chen had been in effect supporting and encouraging those around her. The reality was “quite the opposite,” Pun said, adding that Chen’s speaker was facing and that she was addressing police, not protesters.
“What she was saying had nothing to do with encouraging a riot,” Pun said in Cantonese, asking what was the crime in a social worker urging police to act with restraint.
Chen was also standing about “100 metres or 200 metres” away from the protesters when she was speaking, he said.
‘Slightly resistant’ during arrest
On the first day of the retrial last Monday, the prosecution said Chen had taken part in a riot in the vicinity of Hennessy Road and Luard Road in Wan Chai on the day in question. She had been wearing a black T-shirt that read “We are social workers. [We] uphold justice” in Chinese.
Just before 6 pm that day, a crowd had gathered in the area, many of them wearing black tops, helmets and respirators. They began pushing garbage bins, plastic barriers and other items to block roads, Timmy Yip, a lawyer acting for the prosecution said.
Social worker Jackie Chen outside the District Court on the first day of her retrial on December 2, 2024. Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP.
Yip said Chen did not live or work in the area where the protest was taking place, and that she had appeared at the scene to encourage others to riot.
On Thursday, the prosecution summoned the police officer who arrested Chen, surnamed Lam. He told the court that protesters had been hurling petrol bombs and bricks at officers in the vicinity of Hennessy Road and Marsh Road, and that he heard a female voice repeatedly telling police to practice restraint and not to open fire, The Witness reported.
Lam said he approached Chen and arrested her on suspicion of taking part in an illegal assembly at 8.20 pm. Chen was “slightly resistant” when she was arrested, but was later cooperative, he said.
When asked by the defence whether he had heard people saying that she was a social worker, Lam said he “did not hear that at the time.”
A ‘righteous’ person’
Chen’s retrial was scheduled to last 10 days, but only took seven since the social worker did not testify or call witnesses.
Social worker Jackie Chen at a protest in June 2020. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.
Instead, the defence submitted five letters from character witnesses – people who can testify to the good character of a defendant – to present their case.
Pun summarised the five letters to the court on Friday. Three were written by colleagues, one was written by an ex-teacher, and another was written by a friend she did overseas volunteer work with.
One of the former colleagues said Chen was a responsible and kind person, and that they had nominated her in January 2020 for the annual Outstanding Social Worker Award run by the Hong Kong Social Workers Association, which Chen won.
Another ex-colleague commented on Chen’s “remarkable work performance,” describing her as righteous, sensible and always in pursuit of what is right.
District Court in Wan Chai. File photo: Hans Tse/HKFP.
Chen’s friend said the social worker frequently volunteered in mainland China and abroad. Pun listed six volunteer trips Chen had been on, including after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the 2015 Nepal earthquake, as well as following a major typhoon in Taiwan in 2009.
Pun said Chen was a “noble” person and that her tendency for offending was low. She had no criminal record, he added.
Judge May Chung will deliver Chen’s verdict on March 11. Three defendants in Chen’s case, who were cleared of rioting after trial but also saw the government challenge their acquittals, pleaded guilty in September and have been held in custody since.
Under Hong Kong law, rioting is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment. Sentences handed down in the District Court are capped at a maximum of seven years.
