High Court Rules Against CUHK Injunction Bid

The High Court on Wednesday dismissed an application for an injunction to stop police from entering the Chinese University campus without a search warrant or the university's consent.

The injunction was sought by the students union of the university as clashes between students and police ensued over the control of a bridge that goes into the campus. On Tuesday night the fight escalated into a full-blown battles with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas continuously for hours as they replied to hundreds of Molotov cocktails thrown by students.

Judge Wilson Chan ruled that the police had the power to disperse any gathering which they reasonably believed could lead to a breach of the peace, regardless of the setting.

Arguing for the students, Senior Counsel Audrey Eu argued that there was no rioting within the university and it was the entry of police that sparked the clashes. Students were responding to “an invasion of their home and trying to defend” it, she said.

"We are not asking the court to condone violence or ... trying to tie the hands of the police. We’re asking the police be made to enforce the law in accordance to the law, no more no less," the senior counsel said.

Senior Counsel Jenkin Suen who appeared for the police, said Eu’s argument were not true and students and protesters were throwing petrol bombs and bricks from the bridge to Tolo Highway and had attacked police officers on Monday.

He said facts show that Eu’s arguments to show it was all peaceful before Tuesday.

Suen said bricks were being dug out from within university campus and so it was factually wrong for Eu to say there was no evidence of crime within the university.

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