Two Hong Kong activists convicted of blocking Legco doors during protest against new-town development

Two Hong Kong activists have been convicted for blocking doors at the legislature during a protest against the government’s new-town development plans in June last year.

A magistrate said it was “common sense” for anyone not to block doors, rejecting defence arguments that Cheung Hon-yin, 41, and Wong Kan-yuen, 25, did not get any warnings when they stopped two doors at the Legislative Council’s west gate in Admiralty from closing on June 6, 2014.

“This is common sense. It would be inappropriate for any adult to block other people’s doors, let alone the ones at Legco,” Eastern Court magistrate Lee Siu-ho said this morning, before convicting the pair.

Lee also said Wong's attempt indirectly led to injuries suffered by security guards who were there to handle the crowd.

Their co-defendant, Yip Po-lam, 34, was guilty of remaining inside the Legco complex for five hours, Lee ruled.

The trio were taking part in a protest against development plans for the northeastern New Territories.

Each had denied one count of contravening an administrative instruction issued under section 8(3) of the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance.

They were found guilty of violating the instruction, which banned visitors without permits or authorisation in the premises while Legco meetings were ongoing.

Earlier, the court heard Cheung and Wong stopped the doors from closing so protesters could enter the Legco lobby.

Yip remained inside the lobby for hours, during which she made two speeches encouraging others to continue staging the protest inside the lawmaking complex.

Lee slammed the duo’s acts for undermining Legco’s system of issuing visitor permits. Yip should have keep to a designated protest zone outside, the magistrate added.

He adjourned sentencing to August 28, pending reports on all three defendants.

Outside court, Yip, of the Land Justice League, said they would continue to protest against the controversial government plan both inside and outside Legco as lawmakers had failed to listen to residents in the affected areas.