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https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2122520/where-ray-wong-alleged-mong-kok-riot-instigator Law and Crime
Where is Ray Wong, the alleged Mong Kok riot instigator?
High Court issues arrest warrant after activist fails to report to police after German trip. Pro-Beijing media say he is in UK
Hong Kong Indigenous leader Ray Wong Toi-yeung at the Eastern Court last year. Photo: Dickson Lee
The High Court has issued an arrest warrant for a high-profile Hong Kong activist accused of instigating a riot last year that left 130 people injured, after he breached multiple bail conditions, the Post has learned.
Ray Wong Toi-yeung, who led the once-active radical group Hong Kong Indigenous, failed to report to police last week and return his travel documents to the court after a judge-approved trip to Europe.
He was said to be in the UK, according to pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po. The British consulate would not comment on the report.
A police spokeswoman, while declining to comment on Wong’s case, added: “The force would, in the light of the circumstances of each case, locate the suspects at large through different channels and then apprehend them.”
Wong could not be immediately contacted. He was due to stand in an 80-day trial starting next month accused of three charges including rioting.
He also faces charges of joint incitement and inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly.
The riot, the first in Hong Kong in nearly four decades, saw Mong Kok, one of the city’s busiest districts, go into virtual lockdown in February 2016 just hours after the Lunar New Year began.
Wong, 24, was earlier granted permission by the court to travel to Germany to attend an event.
The Post understood that the court issued the warrant of arrest after he breached the bail conditions imposed by the court requiring him to report to Tai Po police station on November 22 and surrender his travel document to the court.
Riots in Mong Kok in February 2016. Rioters set fires and threw bricks at police, injuring officers and shuttering one of the city's busiest subway stations. Photo: Bloomberg
Wong was released weeks after the disturbances last year on condition of a HK$100,000 cash bail and a HK$100,000 cash surety from his mother. He was also ordered to live at a reported address and remain in Hong Kong.
At that time the Department of Justice objected to Wong’s bail application. But Clement Lee Hing-nin, chief magistrate at Kowloon City Court, granted him bail and ruled that “stringent bail conditions can alleviate the risk of absconding”.
It is not immediately clear whether Wong is still legally represented. The Post learned that two lawyers who were earlier instructed by Wong, Nigel Kat SC and Ronny Leung, no longer represented him.
Anyone subject to an arrest warrant made by the court in such circumstances risks being held in custody until the trial begins.
Additional reporting by Clifford Lo