Outraged Hong Kong police officers condemn court verdict in Ken Tsang assault case
Senior officer calls for ‘restraint’ as Junior Police Officers’ Association says court decision to jail seven members of the force for two years was ‘beyond their acceptance level’
Frontline police officers and union members have said the verdict jailing seven of their colleagues for beating Occupy activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu was “beyond their acceptance level” and some believe there may have been “political factors” behind the court decision.
A police union, which represents more than 20,000 members of the force, said in a statement that they were “extremely shocked” by the verdict.
The chairman of the Junior Police Officers’ Association, Joe Chan Cho-kwong issued a statement to all members on Friday morning and said the sentence was unacceptable and the union would raise funds for the seven, who have decided to appeal against the ruling.
“I feel shocked [over the jail term] like every one of you and found it unacceptable. The jail term already went beyond our acceptance level,” Chan said in the statement.
“It is understood that the seven colleagues have decided to appeal against the case that bears a lot of suspicions and an unacceptable sentence. We will raise funds for them so as to ease their financial difficulties brought by the incident,” the statement continued.