Hong Kong protesters launch series of legal challenges and ask city’s judges to remove riot label from early clashes with police
- Civil Human Rights Front leader Jimmy Sham and protester Yeung Kwok-ming want use of tear gas on June 12 declared unconstitutional
- Teacher Yeung Tsz-chun also files judicial challenge over elite officers’ failure to display identification numbers
Anti-government protesters have taken their fight to Hong Kong’s courts, filing multiple legal challenges and damages claims, and asking the city’s judges to strike down the classification of one major protest as a riot.
On Thursday, Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, launched a judicial review alongside protester Yeung Kwok-ming, and asked the High Court to declare the use of tear gas by police at a protest on June 12 unconstitutional.
Police fired tear gas after some protesters started charging, and issued a prohibition on the grounds that it had turned into a riot.
According to their court filing, Sham and Yeung want the court to void the prohibition, in effect overturning the police’s decision to call it a riot – one of the five demands protesters have.
