Ken Tsang arrest footage doesn’t tell full story, Hong Kong court told
As prosecution makes case for admitting the televised images at trial of seven police officers, defence questions their authenticity
Witnesses in the case of seven police officers charged with assaulting activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu during the Occupy protests in 2014 conceded on Friday that news footage didn’t tell the full story of what happened that night.
Two police officers, testifying for the prosecution against their colleagues, made the concession to the District Court, where prosecutors have tried to submit a series of videos from different sources leading up to the alleged attack as evidence.
But defence lawyers objected, saying the authenticity of the footage – from TVB, ATV, Now TV and Apple Daily – could not be verified and that it could have been tampered with.
But despite the concessions, the witnesses confirmed that the news footage matched their recollections of events. Staff from the TV stations also testified that the footage in question was free from tampering.
Chief inspector Wong Cho-shing, 48, senior inspector Lau Cheuk-ngai, 29, detective sergeant Pak Wing-bun, 42, and constables Lau Hing-pui, 38, Chan Siu-tan, 31, Kwan Ka-ho, 32, and Wong Wai-ho, 36, deny one joint count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent against Tsang on October 15, 2014. They allegedly assaulted Tsang at a pump station near Lung Wui Road.
Chan also denies one lesser charge of common assault.