Hong Kong judge rejects police group’s bid for private details of district council voters to be taken off public register to combat harassment of officers
- High Court dismisses call for interim injunction but bans public inspection of registry until Friday, pending possible appeal
- Association sought judges’ intervention ahead of November 24 elections to protect officers from doxxing by radical protesters
Hong Kong’s top court dismissed an urgent application on Wednesday from the city’s largest police group to shield the details of all district council voters from public view.
But at the closed-door hearing, High Court judge Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming issued a temporary ban on public inspection of the register for the upcoming district council election until 4.30pm on Friday, the deadline for the Junior Police Officers’ Association to lodge an appeal, the Post has learned.
Chow had refused to issue an interim injunction sought by the association to tackle the online doxxing of police officers and their families. Lam Chi-wai, chairman of the association, said he would consult lawyers and refrain from commenting on the ruling at this stage.
According to the notice of application filed on Tuesday, the association had asked the court to stop the Electoral Affairs Commission, the Chief Electoral Officer and the Electoral Registration Officer publishing registers for open search, that allowed members of the public to link the names of district council voters with their respective residential addresses.
They also requested the court ordered the retrieval of all copies of registers supplied to candidates for the election, and any other persons, within 48 hours of such an injunction taking effect.
