A woman who tried to break through a police barricade in a protest during Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's visit to the city last year was found guilty of resisting arrest yesterday. Siu Mun-yee, 53, was bound over to keep the peace for one year on a bond of HK$1,000. She said she was innocent and would lodge an appeal. Magistrate Li Kwok-wai said although evidence showed Siu had provoked a breach of the peace, the incident might have been avoided if the police had made better arrangements for the protesters. Siu, who has Australian nationality, was convicted of resisting two police constables outside Central Plaza in Wan Chai on the first day of Li's visit. The judge accepted testimonies from two policewomen, who said Siu tried to break through a police barricade and enter Harbour Road. She refused to enter a protest zone set up 20 to 30 metres from the Grand Hyatt Hotel, where Li was staying. Siu said she was surrounded by dozens of police officers and injured in what she called a heavy-handed police response. A policewoman was scratched, but the judge ruled it was not an intentional attack by Siu. Siu's lawyer, Douglas Kwok King-hin, earlier questioned the police force's legal basis for setting up a security area and protest zone. The magistrate said the force had the power to do so as long as it balanced the rights of the public with security requirements. He said the government and police had a responsibility to explain their actions to the public if there was a widespread impression that the goal was to silence opposition voices. Li said he did not believe authorities intended to limit the public's freedom of speech, but he recognised that if the police had made better arrangements - such as setting up an area for protesters to hand in petitions - the incident could have been avoided. Police could have acted more competently when they arrested Siu, the judge said. Siu was emotional at the time, and the policewomen did not get her sufficiently under control before arresting her. In mitigation, Kwok told Eastern Court Siu had separated from her husband and was living on her savings plus HK$4,000 in rent from a property. She has a 27-year-old son. Her father, Siu Chi-lap, a patriotic filmmaker, died in February. Siu lost money investing in the mainland and said authorities there had taken her property. She was taking the chance to tell the vice-premier to investigate her case, she said. Siu said outside court the verdict was a sign that Hong Kong was losing its freedom. 'My dad told me not to act against the authorities. I told him I did not clash [with them],' she said. 'I feel like I owe him an answer.'
