Joshua Wong at a demonstration outside LegCo on June 17. (Photo: Laurel Chor/Coconuts Media)
Four activists, including Scholarism leader Joshua Wong and HK Federation of Students Secretary General Nathan Law, are set to be charged with obstructing police officers.
They are accused of committing the crime during a protest outside the Chinese government’s liaison office in Sheung Wan on June 11 last year, when demonstrators burned a copy of Beijing’s white paper outlining its “complete jurisdiction” over Hong Kong.
According to Wong, “fewer than 30 people took part” in the demonstration, reports the SCMP.
Joshua Wong, in classic millennial fashion, WhatsApped journalists on Sunday telling them he had received a phone call from the police.
He was instructed to report to the police by Thursday, when he would be charged with obstructing officers in carrying out their duty, he claims.
Since Wong was at the airport en route to a holiday in Japan, he told the police he’d report to them on Monday or Tuesday upon his return.
“I really don’t understand how I obstructed the police from carrying out their duty,” Wong texted to the media.
The two other activists include League of Social Democrats Vice-Chairman Raphael Wong and People Power lawmaker Albert Chan.
“It is white terror,” Chan told the SCMP. “I was prepared that police would come back to us for all these protests in the past year but I just didn’t expect they would pick this case.”
“If police think the offence is serious, why have they dragged this out for over a year before prosecuting us?” Raphael Wong asked.
“This sounds to me like a purge after Occupy Central and the political reform vote.”
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