By Julian Jesse December 17, 2015 / 18:15 HKT
Hong Kong lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung has said that numerous pro-democracy protesters were erroneously arrested and prosecuted because police misconstrued information.
Apple Daily (as translated by EJI) quotes Leung as saying that police testimony was unreliable or excluded in at least 20 cases of protesters coming before the courts following last year’s Occupy demonstrations.
Officers arrested more than 1,000 people in association with the “Umbrella Movement”. There have, however, only been 177 arrested protesters processed through Hong Kong’s judicial system, 114 of which have been convicted or detained as of the end of last month.
In rebuttal to Leung’s claims, Lai Tung-kwok, Secretary for Security, said, “It’s possible the officers did not remember the exact details given the long hours of duty, but it cannot be said that they purposely gave false testimony.”
Lai added helpfully that, like any other witnesses, police are officers are bound by law to be truthful in the courts.
He pointed out, however, that just because someone is cleared of wrongdoing by the courts, doesn’t mean they innocent. “If a case is dismissed, it does not mean the police made a wrongful arrest,” he said.
In other words, guilty until proven guilty.
http://hongkong.coconuts.co/2015/12/17/lawmaker-hong-kong-police-misreported-information-prosecute-occupy-protesters
