The Department of Justice's advice not to prosecute two mainland security officers who were arrested in Hong Kong carrying handcuffs defied common sense, lawmakers said yesterday.
The Legislative Council security panel voted to ask the Security Bureau to express its 'high degree of concern to the [mainland] Public Security Bureau' on the matter and to ask whether the officers faced disciplinary action back home.
The Department of Justice last year advised against prosecuting seven mainlanders, two of them Guangdong Public Security Bureau officers, who were arrested in a Pokfulam residential area last June for loitering and possession of an offensive article. The decision was made on the basis of insufficient evidence.
Guangdong officials said the men were on a shopping and sightseeing trip to Hong Kong.
But Article 45 Concern Group lawmaker and senior barrister Ronny Tong Ka-wah said there appeared to be enough circumstantial evidence for the matter to be brought to the courts.
'Even if the officers inadvertently brought the handcuffs to Hong Kong as suggested by Guangdong authorities, normal human behaviour would be to leave the handcuffs in the hotel,' Mr Tong said.
