Hong Kong legislature president: chamber break-in last June 'most intense in history'
Legislative Council Commission Chairman Jasper Tsang Yok-sing said the protest for which he has been testifying over the past two days in a Hong Kong court was “the most intense” the chamber had ever seen.
Tsang, described as a veteran Legco member in Eastern Court today, offered his assessment on Thursday when asked by defence counsel Randy Shek whether he thought the protest that took place outside the Legislative Council on June 13 was intense.
“It was the most intense in history,” said Tsang, who has been a Legco member since 1997 and its president since 2008. “Storming Legco was unprecedented.”
He had been called to the court as a defence witness to testify in a case involving 12 defendants accused of taking part in an unlawful assembly and forcibly entering the Legco complex in Admiralty. Two of the defendants each face one extra count of obstructing a Legco officer.
The protest arose as the government discussed a northeastern New Territories new town plan, which was supposed to be voted upon in Legco’s finance committee also in June. Some protesters who opposed the plan stormed into the complex later that day.
READ MORE: Hong Kong legislature president Jasper Tsang to testify for defence over protesters' intrusion
Today, Shek questioned if Tsang and his colleagues had failed to take sufficient steps to calm the emotional protesters.
The Legco chairman said some legislators had come down to the protest site to ease tensions.
But the protesters’ dissatisfaction stemmed from their not wanting the funding to be passed, Tsang said. “We couldn’t tell them not to worry nor could we say it would not pass,” Tsang said.
“We couldn’t change the procedure in the chamber based on their emotion,” he added.
Tsang also said Legco normally welcomed the public’s presence so that they can voice their opinions, but that day the situation had deteriorated.
He said some Legco staff members who were monitoring the scene through closed-circuit television were so scared that they burst into tears.
The trial continues.
