Joe Yeung Yat-long, now reportedly a student at Shue Yan University, was nabbed yesterday for his alleged role in the incident earlier this month
YINGKIT.LAI@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, 10:17am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, 10:39am
Yeung in the protest area in Admiralty in October last year during the Occupy demonstrations. Photo: Dickson Lee
One of the six persons arrested for his role in a blast outside the city’s legislature two weeks ago was a 22-year-old former part-time policeman-turned-Occupy movement protester last year.
Joe Yeung Yat-long was among six men arrested yesterday in connection with the December 9 rubbish bin blast outside the Legislative Council building.
According to a police source, Yeung is a student at Shue Yan University and also a former auxiliary policeman.
READ MORE: Legco explosion: Six men arrested over rubbish bin blast outside Hong Kong legislature
Yeung, now 22, quit the auxiliary police after participating in last year’s Occupy movement, during which he was accused of spying for the police. During the protests, Yeung, who claimed he was called upon to act as a de facto leader of the leaderless occupation, caused anger and confusion when he announced that crowds would withdraw from a key protest site in Admiralty.
The student briefly made headlines on local television last year when he was seen shaking hands with a police officer to seal a supposed agreement that demonstrators would stop blockading a section of Lung Wo Road near Tim Wa Avenue, the main access point to the chief executive’s office.
READ MORE: Officer quitting to join Occupy rallies ‘boosts auxiliary police morale’
But his announcement was quickly undone when angry protesters rushed to the site and sat down on the road, refusing to give way to traffic. His move also drew suspicion from protesters on his motives and background.
He insisted to media at the time: “If I’m an auxiliary officer with only a year of record – plus my slim body – how could I be an undercover cop?”
READ MORE: ‘I’m not an undercover cop,’ says policeman turned Occupy protester in Admiralty
Reportedly now a history major at Shue Yan University who joined the Auxiliary Police Force in 2013, Yeung said in late September last year that he had been dissatisfied with the force’s internal operations and planned to quit his police job.
“When they pepper-sprayed the Admiralty protesters a few days ago [on September 28, 2014], I was shocked,” he told media at the time. “That was totally not what I was trained to [do].”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1893802/former-part-time-policeman-turned-occupy-protester-among
