Charges against Occupy leaders unconstitutional, ‘beyond criminal law’, lawyer argues
Gerard McCoy SC wants charge of inciting people to further instigate others to cause public nuisance quashed, saying double criminality is ‘unknown to the law’
The founders of Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy Occupy protests will find out next month whether the charge against them is constitutional or not.
Academics Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Dr Chan Kin-man, Reverend Chu Yiu-ming and five leading protesters have been charged with “incitement to incite public nuisance” in the lead up to 79 days of protests for greater democracy that paralysed the city’s thoroughfares.
Prosecutors allege that the eight defendants “unlawfully incited persons present” in Tim Mei Avenue and Fenwick Pier Street “to incite other persons to cause a public nuisance” by unlawfully obstructing the carriageways.
The offence is punishable by up to seven years in jail.
But Gerard McCoy SC, who tabled a motion to quash the charge, argued for the trio that the offence of double incitement had “gone too far” because it was unconstitutional.
Charges against Hong Kong Occupy leaders are ‘prosecution overkill’, barrister says
“Double criminality is unknown to the law [and is] beyond criminal law,” he told District Judge Johnny Chan Jong-herng. “If it can be double, it can be triple, and it can go on.”