Clerical blunder triggers huge Hong Kong police deployment to Eastern Court to ‘rearrest’ defendants from protests
- At least 11 police vehicles and more than 100 officers, most in riot gear, descend on Eastern Court after mistake allows defendants to be freed
- The released defendants surrendered to the police, as they now wait for new charges to be filed
A clerical blunder by the justice department on Monday prompted police vehicles to race to a Hong Kong court, where heavily armed riot police were deployed outside as officers entered the building to arrest defendants from the city’s anti-government protests.
The court drama soon escalated into a stand-off between officers armed with crowd-control weapons – including guns with rubber bullets – and protest supporters wielding umbrellas. The incident was triggered by a mistake in a “consent to prosecute” document that was handed from the Department of Justice to Eastern Court.
The invalid document, which contained the wrong name of a defendant, caused the court to release and withdraw the charge against him and four co-defendants.
Tension intensified when police arrived to arrest the defendants immediately after the hearing.
The released defendants surrendered to the police, however, as they waited for new charges against them to be filed.
