CHRIS LAU CHRIS.LAU@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 20 August, 2015, 11:43am
UPDATED : Thursday, 20 August, 2015, 12:20pm
Wong Yuk-man addresses supporters outside the court. Photo: Edward Wong
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will be the prosecution’s first witness in the trial of a lawmaker accused of assaulting the city’s leader, according to a legal document.
Pro-democracy legislator Wong Yuk-man today pleaded not guilty at Eastern Court to one count of common assault on Leung in Hong Kong on July 3 last year as he made his first appearance in court since he was arrested on Tuesday.
Wong is the first lawmaker to be charged over an assault on the city’s chief since the handover in 1997.
In court today, Wong said it was “not a crime to protest”, when he was asked to make a plea.
“This is not a platform to express your political views,” Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai said, however, before Wong denied the assault charge.
The court did not hear detailed allegations of the charge, including whether it was related to a glass Wong hurled in the Legislative Council chamber on the same day.
A legal document served to Wong by prosecutors shows that one of the exhibit items would be pieces of glass.
The document also shows most prosecution witnesses would be from Legco, with Leung the first on the witness list.
Also on the witness list were lawmaker Wong Ting-kwong, from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, and Legco staff, including security guards.
A group of supporters yelled slogans with Wong outside the court.
In a hurry, Wong then took a taxi to Kowloon City Court to support pro-democracy activist Cheng Kam-mun,who was today jailed for three weeks for obstructing a police officer in a Christmas stunt last year.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1851046/cy-leung-be-first-witness-trial-lawmaker-accused-assaulting
