Verdict on Hong Kong press group chief Ronson Chan, accused of obstructing police, expected in September
Hong Kong Free Press
The verdict on Hong Kong journalist Ronson Chan, who stands accused of obstructing a police officer, will be handed down on September 25. Chan’s charges relate to an incident last year when he allegedly refused to show his identification to a police officer.
Chan, who faces one count of obstructing a police officer and an alternative charge of obstructing a public officer, appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts before Magistrate Leung Ka-kie on Friday.
The veteran journalist was arrested in Mong Kok last September while reporting on a home owners’ committee meeting for Channel C.
Having submitted their respective written closing statement to the magistrate, neither the defence nor the prosecution delivered closing speeches in court. The verdict was adjourned to late-September due to the unavailability of the court in August.
According to earlier testimony by police witnesses, officers had been patrolling in Mong Kok at the same time as a home owners’ committee meeting was being held at the MacPherson Stadium. Chan was stopped by one of the police officers as he was said to be acting “suspiciously,” crossing the street diagonally and pressing his bag.
The police witness said she warned Chan that he would be charged with obstructing a police officer if he continued to refuse to show his Hong Kong identity card. She claimed that Chan took out an opaque silver card cover, and began waving it about without removing the card.
Chan was then arrested.
The defence, however, held that the police were not honest and reliable witnesses as the exchange between Chan and the officers lasted just 15 seconds, according to CCTV footage, while it would have taken 24 seconds to have completed the conversation police claimed to have had.
Chan elected HKJA head again
The trial was postponed until May as Chan pursued a six-month fellowship at Oxford University in the UK last year. He was granted bail without travel restrictions.
In June, after returning to the city, Chan was elected head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) for the third time.
Since the 2019 protests and unrest and the enactment of the security law in June 2020, civil society groups, including the HKJA, have faced pressure from the authorities as well as criticism from state-backed media.
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