Court trials of cases related to the 79-days law-breaking Occupy Central are now entering the "peak period". Pretrial review of cases against major plotters and organisers of the incident - Benny Tai Yiu-ting and other eight suspects - started at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts yesterday. The pretrial review is expected to last for four days, to pave way for formal trials of the cases.
The law-breaking Occupy Central took place in September 2014. Three years and three months later, the public eventually sees the initial instigators, Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and others, be brought to court to face trial and punishment by the law.
By now, several dozen defendants have been prosecuted and jailed for participating in the law-breaking Occupy Central, Occupy Causeway Bay and Occupy Mong Kok, most of whom being convicted of violent assault, resisting arrest and/or assaulting police officers. Such persons as Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and their ilk surely would neither assault police officers nor resort to violence. So what part have they played in the incident? What functions have they performed? What legal consequences and liabilities should they bear? People all over the SAR are waiting to see.
The Basic Law stipulates in black and white that "The courts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall exercise judicial power independently, free from any interference." The public has neither intention nor power to intervene in or exercise influence on the courts and judges. However, as justice naturally inhabits people's hearts, the public still has its view and "expectation" of the trials on Benny Tai and other "chief culprits" of Occupy Central. Surely it is up for the court and judge to decide on what criminal offences each defendant should be convicted and what criminal liability each defendant should be held. But the public's demand for fairness, justice and maintaining social order obviously also is neither presumptuous nor contradictory to the spirit of the rule of law.
The nine defendants in the cases for pretrial review yesterday are Benny Tai Yiu-ting - an associate professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong, Chan Kin-man – an associate professor of Sociology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chu Yiu-ming - the minister of Chai Wan Baptist Church in Hong Kong, Tanya Chan and Shiu Ka-chun – members of the SAR's Legislative Council (Legco), Lee Wing-tat – a former Legco member, Raphael Wong Ho-ming - vice-chairman of the League of Social Democrats (LSD), Tommy Cheung Sau-yin – former standing committee member of Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), and Eason Chung Yiu-wah – former deputy secretary-general of the HKFS.
Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Chu Yiu-ming face the charge of "conspiracy to cause public nuisance". In addition, the trio together with Tanya Chan, Shiu Ka-chun, Eason Chung Yiu-wah, Tommy Cheung Sau-yin and Raphael Wong Ho-ming also face two charges: "inciting others to cause public nuisance" and "inciting people to incite others to cause public nuisance". Lee Wing-tat faces one charge of "inciting others to cause public nuisance."
It still remains fresh in people's memory that the law-breaking 79-day Occupy Central originated from signed articles on newspapers and speeches on electronic media by the trio of Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Chu Yiu-ming. The trio from the "community" who launched Occupy Central. The public is not surprised that they face the charge of conspiracy to cause public nuisance.
The trio, together with another five defendants, also face the charges of "inciting others to cause public nuisance" and "inciting people to incite others to cause public nuisance". In a review of the whole process of the 79-day law-breaking Occupy Central, this is also tallies with facts still fresh in people's memory.
However, during the pretrial review, defence lawyers representing Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and the other defendants argued that the first charge of "conspiracy to cause public nuisance" is similar to the second charge of "inciting others to cause public nuisance". Given that the former charges the defendants of instigating road blockade in Central and the latter accuses the defendants of instigating road blockade to cause public nuisance, the first charge already covers the content of the second charge, so there is no need for separate prosecution.
It seems Benny Tai and his ilk are still racking their brains to make an issue of and seek loopholes in some legal terms and procedures related to their charges, in an attempt to reduce or get off their legal liabilities in the 79-day law-breaking Occupy Central incident. The public believes judicial justice, and law breakers must be punished by the law.
10 January 2018
