Hong Kong ex-lawmaker charged with rioting rejects allegation he tried diluting police manpower, instigating clashes with mob in 2019
- Former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, 46, was challenged by the prosecution over his motive to intervene in a protest at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019
- Prosecution had argued that Lam went on site because he wanted to have a better chance of attacking police
A former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker charged with rioting at a railway station during the 2019 protests has rejected the allegation that he tried diluting police manpower and instigated clashes on site.
Former lawmaker and district councillor Lam Cheuk-ting, 46, was challenged by the prosecution at the District Court on Tuesday over his motive to intervene during a protest gathering at Yuen Long MTR station on the evening of July 21, 2019.
Lam earlier took the stand and explained he chose to make his way to Yuen Long, instead of staying in the Western district where a violent conflict arose between protesters and police, because he had received a photo of a man’s lacerated back and learned mob violence had occurred in the Yuen Long area.
But Senior Public Prosecutor Jasmine Ching Wai-ming argued that Lam avoided the Western district because he knew of the heavy police presence there and wanted to have a better chance of attacking police at Yuen Long instead.
Lam said he “completely” disagreed with the accusations.
“Video evidence showed that I kept asking people to step back because I really had no intention to engage with the men dressed in white shirts,” he responded to Ching.
“I even called the police and asked them to come. How could you possibly interpret my act as adding fuel to the fire?”
Lam said that he retreated from the turnstile gates on the upper floor to the train platform when the white-shirt men began to beat people up with rods.
“I could not even escape [the place]. I was severely injured,” he said.
Ex-lawmaker went to scene of mob attack out of concern, Hong Kong court hears
The court earlier heard that Lam’s arm was fractured and his mouth had been bloodied. More than 10 surgical stitches were required to close the wounds.
Lam stressed that he called the police for support, but did not expect the force would take longer than usual to arrive at Yuen Long station.
A group of white-shirt men – whom Lam believed to be a group of government supporters – had gathered that same night in Yuen Long to attack anyone dressed in black.
Video evidence showed that some white-shirt men at the Yuen Long Station were holding slogans of “protecting Yuen Long, protecting homeland”.
Prosecutor Ching asked whether Lam acknowledged that villagers in the area had a strong sense of solidarity when it came to defending their home.
Lam disagreed, saying that villagers’ sense of tradition and culture preservation did not equate to what he understood as territoriality.
Hong Kong ex-opposition lawmaker has case to answer over Yuen Long mob violence
Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi also disagreed with the logic of Ching’s question that made the assumption that people living in Yuen Long’s villages shared a great sense of community.
Chan earlier heard from Lam’s testimony that “a script” had been written for a plot, which was to engage a gang of white-shirt men to beat anyone dressed in black – the colour favoured by anti-government protesters – and act provocatively in Yuen Long.
When Chan asked about the identity of those white-shirt men, Lam said he believed those men were members of a gang, after he called then Yuen Long District Council chairman Zachary Wong Wai-yin to check if he had information about the attack.
Prosecution on Wednesday will play the audio recording between Lam and the Yuen Long police officer on the night of July 21.
Chan adjourned the hearing to Wednesday.
