Hong Kong social worker Jackie Chen pleads not guilty to rioting during 2019 protest as retrial begins
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong social worker Jackie Chen has pleaded not guilty again to rioting during a protest in 2019, in a retrial that came after the government appealed against her acquittal four years ago.
At the District Court on Monday, Chen denied one count of rioting in relation to a protest on August 31, 2019. That day, protesters set up road blocks in Wan Chai and Admiralty, clashing with police officers who deployed tear gas and water cannon to disperse the demonstrations.
The 47-year-old was acquitted mid-way through her trial in September 2020. Judge Sham Shiu-man made the ruling after the prosecution showed that Chen’s conduct and speech did not amount to an unlawful assembly, let alone a riot.
At the end of the trial, the judge found the rest of the seven defendants not guilty, saying that their mere presence on the scene was not enough to prove guilt. However, the government appealed against all the acquittals, with the Court of Appeal allowing the challenge as it said Sham was “plainly wrong.” Nevertheless, the government was forced to drop its challenge against some defendants because they had left Hong Kong.
Lai Pui-ki, Chung Ka-nang and Jason Gung, who are still in the city, changed their pleas to guilty in September and have been remanded since. They will be sentenced after Chen’s trial ends. Chen applied to the Court of Appeal to challenge the lower court’s decision to allow a retrial, but was rejected.
The retrial is presided over by Deputy District Judge May Chung. In their opening statements on Monday, the prosecution said Chen had taken part in a riot in the vicinity of Hennessy Road and Luard Road in Wan Chai on August 31, 2019.
Just before 6pm 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.
From around 7pm, what authorities deemed an illegal assembly then turned into a riot when more people gathered, setting fires and and moving bleachers from the nearby Southorn Playground out onto the street.
Upholding ‘justice’
A member of the Battlefield Social Worker group, Chen was frequently seen on the frontlines of protests in 2019 when she volunteered to monitor police behaviour. She sought to liaise between protesters and the force and provide emotional support at demonstrations, often speaking to police officers through a loudspeaker and telling them not to deploy tear gas against reporters and residents without protective gear.
Yip said that, later into the night, protesters began hurling petrol bombs at officers. Police deployed tear gas and water cannon at around 8 pm as officers arrested protesters.
Chen was arrested near the intersection of Hennessy Road and Marsh Road. Prior to the arrest, she was holding a mic and carrying a loudspeaker, warning police to be restrained and saying that people were already retreating, and that they should be given time.
She was wearing a t-shirt reading: “We are social workers. [We] uphold justice” and had a respirator hanging around her neck.
Yip also showed the court CCTV footage, as well as a livestream from media outlet HK01, showing the protest scenes from around 6 pm to 7.30 pm.
The prosecution said Chen did not live or work in the area, a point that senior counsel Hector Pun disputed, saying that Chen was carrying out her duties as a social worker.
The trial was adjourned to Tuesday, when the prosecution will call upon police officers deployed to handle the protest that night to testify.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They 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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