CHRIS LAUchris.lau@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 04 August, 2015, 12:02am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 04 August, 2015, 12:02am
Pro-democracy demonstrators and police clash as police try to clear an area during the Occupy movement in Mong Kok October 17, 2014. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
A magistrate cleared a computer programmer of assaulting two police officers after dismissing the officers' evidence as "bizarre" and "absurd".
Cheung Tak-chuen, 29, was accused of pushing constable Chan Tung-on near Shantung Street during the Occupy protest in Mong Kok on October 17. Upon his arrest, he was alleged to have slapped another constable, Lai Kin-fung, in a police vehicle.
When Chan and Lai, who subdued Cheung, testified earlier in Kwun Tong Court, they claimed they did not notice another police officer using a shield to pin down Cheung. But the scene was captured on a video played earlier in court.
Cheung Tak-chuen"The duration was not short. There is no way Chan failed to see it," Magistrate Kenneth Chan Ping-chau said yesterday.
Lai also refused to admit he was captured on the video using his fist to press the defendant on the ground, the magistrate noted.
He said the two were obviously worried that they and other officers could be accused of using excessive force. He added that Chan even gave the impression he was "fabricating reality" as he failed to recall core events.
The magistrate said the poor quality of the officers' evidence, which could give rise to reasonable doubts, meant he had to acquit Cheung.
The court heard earlier that Chan stepped in after he saw Cheung raise his hands in a crowd. The policeman said he feared Cheung could hurt others.
"This is bizarre," the magistrate said, noting that other protesters had also raised their hands, and that the likelihood of Cheung clashing with other protesters was slim.
Chan also claimed Cheung could hurt him, although the magistrate noted the video showed the accused had retreated several steps as Chan approached. "What Chan said simply does not stand," he said.
The magistrate also rejected as "absurd" Lai's earlier suggestion that he failed to alter a mistake in his police diary because there was "not enough space" to do so.
When he testified in court earlier, he said he did not see which hand Cheung used to push Chan, even though he recorded in his diary that it was the left hand.
Since Cheung appeared cooperative in the video from the moment he was arrested, the magistrate concluded he failed to see why Cheung would attack Lai in the police car.
But the magistrate did not think police used excessive force in subduing Cheung, despite finding the officers evasive.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1846174/hong-kong-protester-cleared-after-police-give-bizarre
