Court burns midnight oil processing security cases

West Kowloon Court sat into the small hours as it tried to process the cases of 47 pro-democracy figures accused of national security crimes over their involvement in Legco primaries last year.

The suspects are accused of intending to abuse Legco’s power by plotting to indiscriminately overturn government budgets and eventually force the Chief Executive to resign – after gaining a majority in Legco.

Defendants have been fighting a prosecution bid to keep them behind bars as police continue with investigations.

The prosecution sought to have the cases adjourned for three months, and asked the court to refuse bail to all 47 defendants, saying there was a strong chance they would continue to endanger national security.

The prosecution also cited a decision by the Court of Final Appeal to refuse bail to media tycoon Jimmy Lai last month, saying the threshold for bail for National Security cases was higher than for other types of criminal cases.

But defence lawyers objected to the prosecution’s request, arguing that remanding them in custody for three months would be a serious infringement of their rights.

They said that normally police would only bring defendants to court when they had sufficient evidence to prosecute them.

Some protesters remain outside the court overnight, and police said that as of 8.30pm on Monday they had issued fixed penalty notices to 19 men and 19 women for breaching social distancing rules. They said a 34-year-old man had also been detained for obstructing police.

As of 2am on Tuesday, RTHK was told that only 20 cases had been processed.

Shortly before 3am, the hearing was adjourned until 11.30am on Tuesday for the remaining bail submissions to be heard.

The defendants were held in custody although at least one was reportedly taken to hospital, although there were no further details.
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Last updated: 2021-03-02 HKT 05:51