CE: Open-minded About Probe

The Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, hinted on Sunday that the government was open to looking at other ways to respond to demands for an investigation into the policing of recent protests.

Her comments came just hours ahead of an illegal protest march in Kowloon.

Lam said that as a chief executive, she would consider looking for other ways to respond to protesters' calls for an independent probe into claims of police brutality towards demonstrators.

But Lam said that would only happen if the public still clearly did not trust the current mechanism for handling police complaints, and if the SAR government really wanted to get at the truth.

During an interview with TVB, Lam declined to say if a commission of inquiry was an option.

She only said the government would consider that, if necessary.

She said a report to be submitted by the Independent Police Complaints Council before the end of this year will look into the Yuen Long attacks in July, an incident inside Prince Edward station in August and accusations of police abuse at a detention centre near the border.

However, she said she did not want to speculate on whether the report's findings would help calm months of unrest.