Protesters accuse police of being 'unreasonable' during reform demonstrations

Protesters yesterday accused police of taking a heavy-handed approach during demonstrations against Beijing's stringent restrictions on Hong Kong's democratic reform.

A series of protests have taken place since Sunday, when the National People's Congress Standing Committee set its rules for the 2017 chief executive poll, many of them targeted at Li Fei , a senior Beijing official sent to Hong Kong to explain the ruling.

There were two nights of stand-offs outside the Wan Chai hotel where Li was staying, and pepper spray was deployed as he spoke at a forum at AsiaWorld-Expo on Monday.

Among those arrested was performance artist Au Yeung Tung, who protested against what he called Beijing's "naked tyranny" by stripping off outside government headquarters in Admiralty as Li gave a press conference inside on Monday.

Au Yeung said officers put him in a police vehicle and then spent about 20 minutes discussing what charge they could arrest him for.

They considered indecent exposure and disorderly conduct, but settled on outraging public decency, a more serious offence that can carry a jail term of up to seven years.