Falun Gong activists convicted [EDIT: HK$ 7.8 = US$ 1.0]
scmp.com
Friday, August 16, 2002
Falun Gong activists convicted
PATRICK POON and STELLA LEE
The politically charged trial of 16 Falun Gong followers drew to a close yesterday, ending five months of international scrutiny of Hong Kong's legal system. A conviction for obstruction, carrying a small fine, was handed down, with the magistrate saying the right to demonstrate was "not absolute".
Group members said afterwards they would appeal against the conviction, handed down for a protest they conducted outside Beijing's Liaison Office in Western in March. It is the first criminal conviction of Falun Gong followers in Hong Kong since the spiritual group was outlawed on the mainland in July 1999.
Both the United States and British consulates said they noted the conviction and stressed the importance of maintaining freedom and rule of law in the SAR.
Delivering his verdict, magistrate Symon Wong Yu-wing insisted there were no political considerations in his decision. "The issue of this trial is not whether they are Falun Gong members . . . If a group of tai chi practitioners did the same thing, the issue before me would be the same."
Mr Wong said people in Hong Kong had the right to protest and hold demonstrations and he stressed that such rights should be protected. "But one thing is for sure - these rights are not absolute. They require a very delicate balance, having regard to overall circumstances, such as the time and place," he said.
The Falun Gong and Human Rights Monitor said the conviction would set a bad precedent for protests in Hong Kong.
The 16 - four Swiss, one New Zealander and 11 Hong Kong practitioners - were each fined $1,300 for obstruction in a public place.
During the March 14 protest outside the Liaison Office in Connaught Road, Western, they displayed a large banner bearing the words "Jiang Zemin: Stop killing" and assembled near the flagpole carrying the national flag.
Nine of the local sect members were also each fined $500 for wilfully obstructing Inspector Ho Ming-yan in a police vehicle at Western police station.
Hong Kong resident Lau Yuk-ling, 58, was fined $2,000 for one count each of assaulting Constable Wong Mei-po in a vehicle at the station and Constable Chan Wai-man in the station's car park.
Lu Jie, 38, and Wong Yiu-hing, 36, were each fined $1,000 for assaulting Constable Wong and Inspector Iris Chan Sin in the police station's briefing room.
The magistrate said he was "absolutely certain that the arrests of the defendants were lawful", saying that the members defied repeated warnings and that the officers had been sensible and reasonable to ask the group to move.
"Before the arrest, police patiently waited for four hours and repeated warnings were given to the defendants . . . Unfortunately, they chose to ignore them and defied the law of Hong Kong," he said.
The magistrate accepted the evidence of all prosecution witnesses as "credible, consistent and reliable" and criticised the defence witnesses as "very political, evasive, irrelevant and exaggerating". He concluded that the demonstration had caused actual and potential obstruction to other pedestrians.
Mr Wong said it was understandable that the defendants displayed "a very genuine concern about the persecution of Falun Gong members on the mainland". And he accepted defence counsel Paul Harris' submission on the freedom of assembly in relation to the Basic Law and Bill of Rights, but said the rights should not be absolute.
In mitigation, Mr Harris said the defendants believed they could pass on their concerns about the continuing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on the mainland to the Liaison Office.
Outside court, Falun Gong spokesman Kan Hung-cheung said the group would help the defendants appeal against their convictions and sentence.
He said he was "very shocked and upset" about the verdict and warned Beijing's persecution of Falun Gong members had been extended to Hong Kong. Swiss national Erich Bachmann, 40, who was among those convicted, feared he would be put on a government blacklist and might not be able to return to Hong Kong.
A government spokeswoman said the fact that they were Falun Gong followers was not a factor in the decision to press charges.
"They were prosecuted because it was considered, in good faith, that the evidence showed they had breached the laws of Hong Kong," she said.
Also charged with obstruction were Tso Chi-sin, 55, Yeung May-wan, 53, Tse Lai-sim, 48, Tsang Hau-sim, 48, Chan Sing, 52, and Jenny Lee, 57.
The others were Swiss nationals Lam Duy Quoc, 28, Roland Isenschmid, 39, and Simone Claudia Schlegel-Grunenfelder, 28, and Hong Kong residents Chee Fei-ming, 61, Lau Wai-hing, 58, and Lam Chi-for, 45. |
