My Take | Charges against Occupy activists is bad timing, not persecution

The godfather of Hong Kong’s civil disobedience, Benny Tai Yiu-ting, has denounced charges brought against him and eight other leaders or participants of the 2014 Occupy protest movement as persecution. Coming as they did a day after the election of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as the next chief executive, one has to admit the optics look very bad indeed.

But most of the discussions yesterday, including Tai’s persecution claims, conflated two very different issues. One has to do with the timing of the charges; the other with whether the charges are legally appropriate. Once we have decided that the charges are appropriate, there is no question of persecution.

Of the charges, the three Occupy leaders – the Reverend Chu Yiu-ming and academics Benny Tai and Chan Kin-man – face three counts each of conspiracy to commit public nuisance, inciting others to commit public nuisance, and inciting people to incite others to commit public nuisance.