Former Hong Kong legislator drops lawsuit against police chief over Yuen Long attack
- Opposition politician Lam Cheuk-ting, who is currently awaiting trial on national security charges, had been seeking compensation for injuries sustained in the 2019 mob attack
- His lawyer and former Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho says the prospect of winning the suit was dim given the government appeared to view the plaintiffs as ‘personal enemies’
Speaking on behalf of Lam on Wednesday, Democratic Party member Winfield Chong Wing-fai said his colleague believed it would be difficult to pursue the long and complicated litigation from his jail cell, particularly in light of the current political climate.
Lam and seven others filed the lawsuit in January last year, nearly six months after the attack on July 21 2019, in which a group of white-clad men wielding rattan canes and metal rods indiscriminately beat commuters and anti-government protesters in and around Yuen Long MTR station, injuring 45.
The attack proved to be a watershed moment during 2019’s protests, provoking a public outcry over the belated police response, and even prompting unsubstantiated accusations that the force had colluded with the aggressors.
The force has defended its response, maintaining it was stretched thin that night as it battled a protest in the heart of the city. More recently, it has been accused of trying to rewrite history after characterising the attack in August last year as a clash between both sides.
Lam and the others were seeking a total of HK$2.7 million (US$350,000) in compensation. His fellow plaintiffs will also no longer be pursuing the case.
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Lawyer and former Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, who was representing Lam in the suit, accused the Department of Justice on Wednesday of dragging its feet on the case.
It had taken more than a year for both sides to simply exchange documents, he said, and the case still had not proceeded to the stage of handing over witness statements.
Ho also revealed that the department had recently asked the plaintiffs to withdraw the suit, arguing it was baseless.
“We anticipated that we might have to spend another year arguing over this, and the government may also appeal [if we win],” Ho said. “It seems that they are taking the plaintiffs as personal enemies.”
Ho added that, unlike the government, his team did not have unlimited funding for the lawsuit.
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“The purpose of Lam suing was not purely to seek compensation, but to seek justice and to compel the full discovery of many facts and pieces of information, many of which are now being hidden by the police and withheld from public disclosure,” he said. “It is now getting too time-consuming and costly before we can reach that stage.”
Ho said Lam preferred to halt the proceedings in the lawsuit now, while pursuing his goal of uncovering the truth of what happened that night through his defence in another July 21 case in which he and six others were charged with rioting.
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A Department of Justice spokesman said it handled all cases, including matters of costs, in accordance with established legal principles and procedures.
As a general rule, a plaintiff who discontinued legal action would have to bear the other side’s costs, the department said, adding it did not comment on individual cases.
Prosecutors have called the unofficial poll a “massive and well-organised scheme” aimed at paralysing the government and toppling the city’s leader by winning a controlling majority in the legislature.
