HK police charge ousted MPs with unlawful assembly
Hong Kong police on Wednesday charged two disqualified legislators with unlawful assembly and forceful entry for attempting to barge into a Hong Kong Legislative Council ( LegCo) meeting in November.
Yau Wai- ching, 25, and Leung Chung- hang, 30, were picked up at their homes around 7 am and taken to a police station for questioning. Later, they were released on a HK$ 3,000 ($ 385) bail and are due to appear in court on April 28, Reuters reported.
The charges were linked to the chaos outside a LegCo conference room on November 2, 2016 when the two tried to storm a meeting after being barred from entering the chamber, which hurt some guards, Hong Kong- based Phoenix TV reported Wednesday.
The Hong Kong High Court disqualified the two as lawmakers on November 15 for their offensive and disrespectful oath- taking behavior in the LegCo session.
At the opening of the LegCo session on October 12, 2016, Leung and Yau changed the oath by replacing “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China” with the “Hong Kong nation.”
They also draped a blue banner reading “Hong Kong is not China” across their shoulders during the ceremony.
Yau even pronounced China as “Shina,” a highly derogatory term used by Japanese forces in World War II.
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal on November 30 rejected the pair’s appeal and upheld the previous ruling of disqualification, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Their behavior has also prompted the National People’s Congress Standing Committee to issue an interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on November 17, clarifying the implications and requirements of oath- taking by Hong Kong legislators- elect, Xinhua reported.