Yuen Long incident revisited

Four members of the "Tin Shui Wai Connection" were held for illegal assembly after crowds gathered two days before the first anniversary of the July 21 attacks at the Yuen Long MTR station.

District councillors Ng Kin-wai, Lam Chun, Fraiser Hau Man-kin and Leon Kwan Chun-sun were arrested while marching from Fung Yau Street North to Yuen Long police station.

The Tin Shui Wai Connection scheduled a march yesterday afternoon but it was canceled due to the resurgence in Covid-19 infections.

Having arrived at the starting point, the four proceeded to march on their own at 6pm.

Lam and Kwan were taken away by police as they reached Yuen Long station, while Ng and Hau were held as they reached the stadium at the junction between Fung Yau Street North and Fung Cheung Road.

Alongside Ng, Lam and Hau, four other district councillors were among at least 13 people to be fined for breaching the four-person cap on social gatherings.

The four others were Lester Shum Ngo-fai, Au Kwok-kuen, Eddie Chan Shu-fai and Leung Tak-ming.

At 2pm yesterday, hundreds of protesters - including Tin Shui Wai Connection members, 11 district councillors and lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick - began gathering at the Yuen Long MTR station and its public transport interchange.

They shouted slogans and held banners accusing police of colluding with triads over the attacks by white-shirted men on protesters and passengers a year ago.

Shortly afterward, police cordoned off the area, flanking several district councillors and saying they had violated the gathering ban.

Police also stopped and searched a man and a woman, who held a banner saying "Police-triad collusion."

Officers used loudspeakers to warn people to leave or they would breach the gathering ban before they pepper-sprayed protesters including reporters at a close range.

At 4pm, protesters relocated to the Yoho Mall with some shouted slogans such as "disassemble the police force, no more delay."

Several more district councillors were also flanked and frisked by police inside the mall.

Chu and Gwyneth Ho Kwai-Lam, a former Stand News reporter who ran in the primaries for the New Territories East constituency, were intercepted by police in the mall but were released later.

At around 5pm, some protesters were heard shouting slogans such as "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times."

In response, officers hoisted a purple flag, warning that they may have breached the new national security law.

Meanwhile, police posted on Facebook that the slogans shouted by some protesters might have breached the national security law and that they face arrest and criminal charges.

Others may have breached the Prevention and Control Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation, noting that a reporter without a mask talked "loudly" to officers on the scene, police said.

"It must be emphasized that during the pandemic, any group gathering may increase the risk of transmission of diseases," the force said.

erin.chan@singtaonewscorp.com