Six activists including student leader Lester Shum say the department did not follow procedures in prosecuting them for contempt of court, and has urged their summonses be discharged
JULIE CHU
JULIE.CHU@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 09 November, 2015, 4:35pm
UPDATED : Monday, 09 November, 2015, 4:35pm
Lester Shum (centre) outside the High Court today. Photo: Nora Tam
Six Occupy activists including student leader Lester Shum have claimed the Department of Justice did not follow procedures in prosecuting them for contempt of court, and has urged their summonses be discharged, the High Court heard this morning.
Barrister Gerard McCoy SC, representing Shum and five others, asked the court to discharge the activists after the department failed to apply for a trial date within 14 days of the summonses being served, as stipulated by requirements.
The six were among 20 activists arrested during the clearance of the occupied site in Mong Kok on November 26 last year. Another student leader, Joshua Wong Chi-fung, and League of Social Democrats vice-chairman Raphael Wong Ho-ming, 26, were among the 20 arrested. They were all alleged to have obstructed the work of bailiffs clearing the site in line with a court order.
The department asked for time to reply to McCoy’s application.
Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming adjourned the case to February 25 next year for mention.
Shum said outside court: “The Department of Justice should know well the procedure. They also hired two senior counsels to assist them in this case. How could they still make such a serious mistake?”
But Shum said 17 activists who had been discharged on the same basis were recharged last week.
“I know the department would not let us go. Even if we succeed in having our summonses discharged, they will charge us again. It is just a waste of public money. I think the department should be made responsible for it,” Shum said.
The court was told the department filed the summonses against 20 activists in April this year but failed to ask for a trial date within two weeks.
Instead, the department applied to amend the summonses on July 22 this year and then applied to fix a trial date on August 5 – which was within 14 days of the amendment of the summonses.
McCoy argued the summonses had expired due to the department failing to complete the procedure. When the department asked to make a small amendment to the writ in July, they failed to inform the court of the situation. The summonses should therefore be discharged, he said.
Another 17 Occupy activists arrested in another clearance operation on November 25 last year also escaped prosecution on the same grounds. The 17 were charged in March this year but the department failed to fix a trial date within two weeks.
On September 1 this year, Chow ruled the department had failed to follow the procedure and so discharged the 17 activists. But the department filed fresh summonses against the 17 again last week.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1877049/hong-kong-occupy-activists-claim-department-justice-did-not
