Occupy demonstrator cleared of assaulting police at pro-democracy protests

[M0TAR0]

Occupy demonstrator cleared of assaulting police at pro-democracy protests

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 19 May, 2015, 5:26pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 19 May, 2015, 10:14pm

Chris Lau [email protected]

Chan Pak-shan with injuries, and yesterday outside court.Photos: David Wong

A magistrate said on Tuesday it was possible police were responsible for injuries sustained by an Occupy protester who had been accused of punching an officer during the pro-democracy movement last year.

Chan Pak-shan was accused of punching Sergeant Wong Lok during a struggle with police, but was cleared of an assault charge by Deputy Magistrate Winston Leung Wing-chung, who said the law enforcement team had failed to explain numerous injuries suffered by the demonstrator.

Chan claimed he had been dragged to a police vehicle and beaten by about 20 officers during the altercation.

Leung said Chan had come out of the struggle in a worse condition than Wong.

The magistrate agreed with Chan’s account of the event and said police could have assaulted him on two separate occasions after they stopped him and his friends on Lung Wo Road in Admiralty on September 29.

Eastern Court had earlier been shown pictures of Chan’s swollen face and several bruises on his chest and inside of his thigh, while Wong had sustained a bruise mark on his chest.

Chan, who denied assaulting Wong and a further count of failing to provide proof of identity, had told the court earlier that the group of policemen had ganged up to drag him to a police vehicle, where a lowered curtain concealed a further beating.

Wong claimed Chan had hurt himself by hitting a fence during his struggle with the officers.

The magistrate, noting the injury on Chan’s thigh, said on Tuesday: “He would not have been able to hit the fence like that.”

He said it was impossible Chan could have sustained his injuries during what Wong claimed was a 30-second struggle. The magistrate highlighted the police’s role.

“From his arrest to the hospital, he was in police custody the whole time,” he said.

Wong said he had politely explained to Chan and his friends why he and his team of officers had not switched off the idling engines of their police vehicles when asked why by Chan, who was heading to the Occupy protest site with friends at the time. Wong alleged Chan had been unsatisfied with his explanation and had then become mad and attacked him, a claim the magistrate questioned.

The incident took place amid tensions between police and young people a day after rounds of teargas had been fired at Occupy protesters. In light of the heated atmosphere, Leung said it was impossible that Wong had been “talking to them like an English gentleman in a decent manner”.

Chan’s version of events was that a police inspector, whom he could not identify, had intercepted him and his friends after he overheard a conversation between them about the engines of police vehicles.

Leung also acquitted Chan of failing to produce valid identification on the grounds that the request police had made was unlawful.