Hong Kong 47: 4 members of pro-democracy League of Social Democrats arrested over conduct outside court

Hong Kong Free Press

Members of pro-democracy League of Social Democrats arrested for disrupting public order

Four members of pro-democracy party the League of Social Democrats were arrested on Thursday after attempting to stage a protest outside the courthouse where 14 democrats were convicted of subversion under the national security law.

Members of the League of Social Democrats outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building ahead of the verdict hearing for 16 Hong Kong democrats involved in the city's largest national security case, on May 30, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. — Members of the League of Social Democrats outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building ahead of the verdict hearing for 16 Hong Kong democrats involved in the city’s largest national security case, on May 30, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Figo Chan, a member of the LSD, said on Facebook that Chan Po-ying, Dickson Chau, Yu Wai-pan, and Raphael Wong had been arrested for disorderly conduct outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building. Also present was activist “the Bull” Tsang Kin-shing.

Chan Po-ying is the chair of the LSD and wife of jailed pro-democracy activist and former chair Leung Kwok-hung, who was among those convicted on Thursday over their involvement in an unofficial primary election in July 2020.

The LSD is one of Hong Kong’s few remaining pro-democracy parties.

Disorderly conduct

Police said in a statement on Thursday that three men and a woman were suspected of “failing to enter the court as instructed and behaving in a disorderly manner.”

“The officers approached the court to help maintain order and repeatedly advised them to enter the court as instructed and gave verbal warnings, but the four persons ignored the advice and kept shouting. After preliminary investigation, the officers arrested the three local men and one local woman, aged between 32 and 68, on suspicion of ‘disorderly conduct in a public place’,” the statement read.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang announces the beginning of the public consultation period for Hong Kong's homegrown security law, Article 23, on January 30, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. — Secretary for Security Chris Tang announces the beginning of the public consultation period for Hong Kong’s homegrown security law, Article 23, on January 30, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang on Thursday confirmed the arrests: “I understand that outside the courtroom, there are several people who [caused a] nuisance and they… [conducted] disorderly conduct outside the courtroom and they are being arrested.”

Leung and 13 others – including ex-lawmakers and district councillors, and a journalist-turned-activist – were found guilty. Barrister Lawrence Lau and former district councillor Lee Yue-shun were acquitted. They were among 47 pro-democracy figures involved in the case – the remaining 31 of whom pleaded guilty to the national security charge.

The LSD members arrived at the courthouse just before 9 am. On the eve of Thursday’s verdict, the LSD said it had planned to stage a petition to call for the release of all “political prisoners” and express discontent at what it called a “miscarriage of justice.”

Barrister Lawrence Lau walks out the West Kowloon Law Courts Building after a panel of judges found him not guilty of being involved in a conspiracy to commit subversion under the Beijing-imposed national security law, on May 30, 2024. Photo: Hans Tse/HKFP.

But the LSD members were quickly surrounded by police. The activists said that officers did not allow them to make a statement outside the courthouse.

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