Hong Kong police were wrong to hide identification badges during last year’s pro-democracy protests, while the territory’s watchdog was “inadequate” for investigating complaints against officers, a senior judge said yesterday.
The ruling is a blow to the territory’s pro-Beijing leaders who have defended the police’s actions during the huge and often violent democracy protests, and have dismissed calls to overhaul how officers are monitored.
The ruling by High Court Judge Anderson Chow (周家明) stemmed from a series of judicial review applications brought against police by multiple parties.
Photo: AFP
During the months of clashes last year riot police often refused to wear ID badges, making it all but impossible to identify officers involved in complaints.
Lawyers for an Indonesian journalist who lost an eye to a police baton round, for example, have complained that they have been unable to identify the officer who fired the shot.
No police officer has been sacked over last year’s protests, while the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has exonerated the force of any major wrongdoing.
However, Chow said that the police and government breached Article 3 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights by failing to show identity badges and provide an adequate complaints mechanism.
Article 3 provides that no one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
“Even in times of public emergencies, however serious, the rights under [Article 3] must still be respected by the government and protected by the courts,” he wrote.
Public anger toward the police rocketed during the protests and the police said many officers were harassed, often though “doxxing” attacks where personal details are leaked online.
As criticism mounted over the identification badges, police brought in a call sign number system for officers — a move later backed by the IPCC.
However, Chow was critical of that move, saying identification “cannot be merely through the internal process of the force.”
“Otherwise, victims of police ill-treatment would be entirely or largely at the mercy of the force,” he wrote.
Chow also had a blunt assessment of the IPCC, which critics have long described as toothless.
“The existing complaints mechanism ... is inadequate to discharge this obligation,” he wrote.
A panel of international experts initially appointed to help the body look into last year’s protests resigned after they said the IPCC did not have the requisite powers to do the job properly.
Chow’s ruling can be appealed by the government.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese