'Occupy Central' activist faces charges in court
Justice department says Melody Chan's arrest was free from political consideration, but the pro-democracy movement's organiser disagrees
An Occupy Central volunteer arrested for her role in a demonstration two years ago appeared in court yesterday.
Melody Chan Yuk-fung, 26, who was arrested on Wednesday, faced two charges. She was accused of organising a public meeting against the Public Order Ordinance and of taking part in an unauthorised assembly on July 1, 2011.
The trainee solicitor and former journalist's arrest has been labelled by Occupy Central supporters as a tactic to suppress the movement to occupy the city centre in a pro-democracy protest next year.
She was arrested while on her way to a volunteers' meeting of the Occupy Central movement. What was it, if it wasn't to create 'white terror'?
But the Department of Justice said in a rare statement yesterday the prosecution decision was free from any political consideration as it was made before the movement surfaced.
Chan submitted no plea, and Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai in the Eastern Court adjourned the case to next month, after Chan's lawyer, Jonathan Man Ho-ching, said the defendant needed four weeks to go through documents.
Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, a core organiser of the movement, said Chan was on her way to a movement meeting when she was arrested in Central.
He dismissed police chief Andy Tsang Wai-hung's claim the police did not take action earlier because they wanted to keep it low-key. Tsang said on Thursday an arrest warrant was issued for Chan in January last year, but she refused to co-operate.