A MAGISTRATE asked yesterday for a week to consider five days of evidence and extensive Bill of Rights arguments before giving his verdict in the case of a trio accused of taking part in an unlawful June 4 protest. Hongkong University student Wong Ching-man, 22, insurance agent To Kwan-hang, 24, and Choi Yiu-cheong, 25, an aide to Legislative Councillor Lau Chin-shek, have denied a summons of unlawful assembly outside the New China News Agency, Happy Valley, early on June 5 last year. About 30 police officers were injured in a demonstration marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Eastern Court Magistrate Alan Wright adjourned the case until next Wednesday after the prosecution and defence ended their submissions. Yesterday, Senior Assistant Crown Prosecutor Stephen Bailey summed up the Crown's answer to Bill of Rights arguments by defence counsel Martin Lee QC. Mr Bailey said Section 18 of the Public Order Ordinance, which makes unlawful assembly a crime, did not diminish the right to peaceful assembly. He said the criterion of a reasonable fear of a breach of the peace was an objective test and such a breach implied violence. The defence had claimed that even if Bill of Rights arguments did not convince the magistrate, the Crown had failed to prove there had been a reasonable fear of a breach of the peace. But Mr Bailey said the Crown was not obliged to prove there had been a reasonable fear. ''The Crown does not have to bring along witnesses saying that they were scared,'' he said. ''The issue is whether circumstances were such that it was likely there could have been a reasonable fear.'' The Crown submitted that the defendants played an integral part in the protest of June 5.
