Hong Kong ex-lawmaker charged with rioting rejects allegation he tried diluting police manpower, instigating clashes with mob in 2019
- Former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, 46, was challenged by the prosecution over his motive to intervene in a protest at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019
- Prosecution had argued that Lam went on site because he wanted to have a better chance of attacking police
A former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker charged with rioting at a railway station during the 2019 protests has rejected the allegation that he tried diluting police manpower and instigated clashes on site.
Former lawmaker and district councillor Lam Cheuk-ting, 46, was challenged by the prosecution at the District Court on Tuesday over his motive to intervene during a protest gathering at Yuen Long MTR station on the evening of July 21, 2019.
Lam earlier took the stand and explained he chose to make his way to Yuen Long, instead of staying in the Western district where a violent conflict arose between protesters and police, because he had received a photo of a man’s lacerated back and learned mob violence had occurred in the Yuen Long area.
But Senior Public Prosecutor Jasmine Ching Wai-ming argued that Lam avoided the Western district because he knew of the heavy police presence there and wanted to have a better chance of attacking police at Yuen Long instead.
Lam said he “completely” disagreed with the accusations.
“Video evidence showed that I kept asking people to step back because I really had no intention to engage with the men dressed in white shirts,” he responded to Ching.
“I even called the police and asked them to come. How could you possibly interpret my act as adding fuel to the fire?”
Lam said that he retreated from the turnstile gates on the upper floor to the train platform when the white-shirt men began to beat people up with rods.