Student leaders did not want Occupy founders to be part of their protest, Hong Kong court told
- Lawyer for Tommy Cheung makes shock claim as he questions Dr Chan Kin-man one of driving forces behind movement
- Claim further evidence of split that emerged between two groups involved in civil disobedience
Student leaders never wanted the founders of the Occupy protests involved in their demonstration, and turned it into the civil disobedience movement that brought Hong Kong to a standstill in 2014, a Hong Kong court heard Monday.
A lawyer for one of the student leaders, Tommy Cheung Sau-ying, made the claim during the trial of nine people accused of playing leading roles in the pro-democracy movement four years ago.
The shock assertion even caught Dr Chan Kin-man, one of the founders, by surprise, and he said he doubted it to be true, although he did not rule out it completely when asked about it at West Kowloon Court.
“I cannot rule it out completely,” he said. “Though the possibility would not be high.”
The claim was further evidence that the 2014 pro-democracy protests – despite its largely unified front – was punctuated with arguments between student leaders and the protest’s founders, the two driving forces at the time.