Hong Kong police dismiss online rumours of immediate mass arrests of protesters at this weekend’s anti-government rallies

Senior officers deny internet speculation that police will arrest protesters and charge them with rioting

But the Post has learned of a police plan to mobilise more than 3,000 officers for security at a rally in Victoria Park on Sunday

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Alan Lau (centre), then the deputy police commissioner, at a police parade in November 2018. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 11:05pm, 9 Aug 2019Updated: 4:34am, 10 Aug 2019

Hong Kong police on Friday brushed off online rumours that orders had come from “the highest level” to arrest protesters en masse this weekend without trying to disperse them.

The rumours emerged on Thursday after news broke that a hardline top officer, Alan Lau Yip-shing, was being brought out of retirement to help tackle the city’s escalating protest crisis.

Posts in online forums claimed the police would no longer try to break up crowds but instead arrest protesters right away and charge them with rioting, an offence that carries a maximum term of 10 years in jail.

But Jim Ng Lok-chun, the senior police superintendent in charge of operations on Hong Kong Island, said this was not the case.

We have always tried to assist people to express their views peacefully

Jim Ng, senior police superintendent

“I could assure you that the information is not correct and the accusation is wrong. We have always tried to assist people to express their views peacefully,” Ng said at Friday’s daily press conference.

Ng spoke to the media after the police force barred four anti-government marches scheduled for the weekend in Wong Tai Sin, Tai Po, Sham Shui Po and North Point.

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