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Police arrest passerby who came to the aid of pregnant woman during ‘8.31’ memorial

蘋果日報 2020/12/18 06:17


Hong Kong police have arrested a woman who tried to intervene when officers pushed a pregnant woman to the ground during a memorial event in late August.The passerby allegedly “tried to push the police officer away,” after the police had bowled over a pregnant woman and arrested her husband. They were part of the crowds which had gathered at the Prince Edward MTR station for a memorial event on Aug. 31. The memorial was to commemorate a significant incident on the same day in 2019, during the anti-extradition bill movement which swept the city. On that day, police officers had indiscriminately attacked passengers on the Prince Edward MTR station platform.
Police officers had injured at least seven people and ignited public outrage over police brutality. It became known locally as the “8.31 incident,” and seen as an important turning point in the government’s increasing use of violence towards protesters, with the public’s swift backlash.
At the 8.31 commemoration event this year, the arrested passerby got into a heated discussion with the police out of concern for the pregnant woman’s safety, according to district councillor Ben Lam.
The woman was arrested at home on the morning of Dec. 16 for obstruction of police action, nearly four months after the incident. She was taken to Kowloon City Police Station before being granted bail in the evening.
Lam said the arrest was petty and a gross misuse of power by Hong Kong police.
The arrested husband of the pregnant woman, surnamed Fung, is currently on bail with the case continuing to drag on. The police have still been unable to formally charge Fung, according to district councillor Andy Yu who has been following the case.
Yu feared that the latest arrest indicated that the police may have obtained new information on the incident, which could be detrimental to Fung’s case as well.
A police spokesperson said a man was arrested for shouting insults at the police on August 31 this year. In the process, a woman “allegedly pushed away police officers with her hands” in order to stop the police arrest.
The police then suddenly unleashed teargas along Argyle Street that evening. In the chaos, a pregnant woman was pulled down by police officers and needed to be transported to the hospital. Her husband, who was hit with pepper spray, was arrested for indecent conduct in a public space.
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