Hong Kong students accused of blocking road during mask ban protest acquitted after judge finds officers’ testimony unreliable

The two teenagers were accused of building a roadblock in Sham Shui Po during a protest last October

However, officers did not actually witness them in the act, and inconsistencies in their testimony led a judge to clear the pair of charges

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Defendant Wu Man-chun, 18, leaves Kowloon City Court after being acquitted on Monday of obstructing a public place during a protest last year. Photo: Brian Wong

Published: 8:01pm, 5 Oct 2020Updated: 11:30pm, 5 Oct 2020

Two students in Hong Kong accused of blocking roads during a protest against the government’s mask ban last year have been acquitted after a magistrate found inconsistencies in police officers’ accounts of the incident.

Chung Man-sze and Wu Man-chun, aged 16 and 18, respectively, were each cleared of one count of obstruction in a public place at Kowloon City Court on Monday over a demonstration on October 13 last year, eight days after the government issued a controversial ban on the wearing of masks during demonstrations amid last year’s social unrest.

The pair were accused of setting up barricades of cardboard and iron fencing at the junction of Cheung Sha Wan Road and Yen Chow Street in Sham Shui Po, but no officers actually witnessed the two placing obstacles at the scene.

A Kowloon City Court judge found police officers’ testimony against the two defendants unreliable. Photo: Nora Tam

The prosecution said Chung had admitted the offence following her arrest and asked police for leniency. That confession, however, was rejected by Magistrate June Cheung Tin-ngan, who found the two arresting officers unreliable, and pointed to discrepancies in their testimonies.

One such difference, Cheung said, was the number of protesters at the scene. Inspector Wong Yiu-bun, who arrested Wu, said he saw about 60 protesters when he arrived at the junction. However, Constable Lai Kam-yiu, who arrested Chung, said there were only 30 protesters in the area.