Hong Kong protests: lawyers of prosecuted opposition politicians seek court order to prevent police from checking their seized phones
- Lawyers of five former lawmakers say police might abuse their power after a magistrate earlier granted officers unlimited access to the seized phones
- But judges at the High Court say distrust of police is not an issue for them to deal with, while reserving their judgment till the end of the month
Lawyers for five Hong Kong opposition figures prosecuted over last year’s social unrest have asked a court to order police to return their seized mobile phones, fearing an abuse of power after a magistrate granted officers unlimited access to the devices.
But the judges say distrust of police is not an issue for the courts to deal with, while reserving their judgment till a later date in the month.
The points were made in a High Court hearing on Thursday, after it granted a temporary order in favour of veteran pan-democrat Martin Lee Chu-ming and four others – Albert Ho Chun-yan, Au Nok-hin, Sin Chung-kai and Yeung Sum – to prevent police from extracting information from their phones.
The five, all former Democratic Party lawmakers, are among a group of 15 people facing a total of 61 charges in relation to four banned processions that took place between August and October last year.
Lawyers for the five sought to quash a warrant in late June, which granted police access to all content in their phones, and enabled officers to investigate their engagement in the four unauthorised assemblies.
