Hong Kong police said they have made their first arrests in relation to protests on Monday when demonstrators sought to disrupt the 22nd anniversary of the territory's handover from the UK to China and later stormed the city's de facto parliament.
Police said they arrested 12 people over a “violent incident” on Monday outside the city’s legislature, where protesters had gathered to disrupt a flag-raising ceremony marking the 22nd anniversary of the handover.
Eleven men and one woman between the ages of 14 to 46 had been arrested for offences including possession of offensive weapons, unlawful assembly and assaulting a police officer, police said.
Another person was arrested for his alleged involvement in the storming of the legislature building that night.
The city’s legislature will not be able to meet for three months because of extensive damage caused by the protesters, said pro-democracy politician Helena Wong.
She said the fire prevention and electronic voting systems needed to be repaired and restored. She also said computer hard discs had been taken from the security control room, with the names, photographs and titles of those who had building access.
A man has been charged with assaulting police, criminal destruction, misconduct in public places and forced entry of the Legislative Council complex, police said on Thursday. More arrests seem likely given the extent of the damage.
Hong Kong has been hit during the past month by a wave of protests against an extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent to China for trial, plunging the international financial centre into its worst political crisis in 22 years.
The mass protests have been largely peaceful, but splinter groups have occasionally clashed with police. On Monday night a group of mostly young demonstrators used metal bars and road signs to smash their way into the Legislative Council, as the city’s parliament is called.
Freedoms
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam suspended the controversial bill in mid-June but this has not assuaged concerns that her government will fail to protect the freedoms granted to Hong Kong on its handover to China from Britain in 1997.
As the political crisis has widened, analysts have questioned why police waiting at the legislature were withdrawn in the face of the protests, leaving the building undefended. This allowed the protesters to break in and vandalise the building, spraying the city’s emblem with graffiti in the main chamber and causing other damage.
In Beijing a foreign ministry spokesman renewed criticism of UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt over his remarks calling into question the Hong Kong government’s handling of the protests, including the use of tear gas and rubber bullets.
“As you mentioned earlier, some people in the UK are making irresponsible remarks on the Hong Kong issue. What I want to say is that previously Mr Hunt has been making false remarks on the issue of Hong Kong,” Geng Shuang told reporters at a daily briefing.
Police defended their withdrawal from the Legislative Council complex, saying a decision was made on safety grounds to avoid possible “physical encounters” with protesters in a confined space.
The force said protesters had used “poisonous and inflammable chemicals” to attack police officers during the day, and if they had attempted to ignite these chemicals inside the building the consequences would have been “unimaginable”.
Police also said they had arrested a total of five men and one woman for offences including assault occasioning actual bodily harm at a pro-government public meeting on June 30th.
Police actions
Local media reported that journalists had been assaulted by demonstrators who had gathered to support police actions against “rioters” at an earlier protest that turned violent on June 12th, when officers used 150 rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse anti-extradition bill demonstrators.
Protesters against the anti-extradition bill are planning to hold a demonstration on Sunday in a shopping district in the city that is popular with tourists from mainland China. The aim is to spread the message about their opposition to visitors from the rest of China, where censorship has meant coverage of the Hong Kong protests has been limited.
Jasper Tsang, the former president of the Legislative Council, called for discussions on political reform in the territory to be restarted in a television interview on Wednesday.
Changes to how Hong Kong’s leader is selected stalled in 2015 when pro-democracy lawmakers voted against adjustments to the selection process that they said would have favoured pro-Beijing candidates. The disagreement over political reforms sparked the 2014 Umbrella Movement that called for genuine universal suffrage. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019 / PA