ICAC Probing 26 Protest Cases Against Police

The ICAC said on Tuesday that as of the end of February, it was investigating 26 cases of suspected corruption involving police officers in connection with the anti-extradition bill protest movement.

This was revealed in a written reply to a question by Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting.

He noted that the administration had earlier said that the anti-graft body was handling 28 protest-related cases against civil servants, asking how many actually involved police officers and how many officers in total.

"Among the 28 cases of suspected corruption, 26 cases involve police officers. On grounds of confidentiality, it is inappropriate for ICAC to disclose details of the cases, including the number of police officers involved," was the reply from ICAC Commissioner Simon Peh.

In July last year, shopkeepers in Yuen Long told RTHK that the ICAC had asked them to provide video footage from the night of July 21, when a large gang of men armed with weapons launched an indiscriminate attack on scores of people in the town's MTR station.

Police admitted it took them 39 minutes to respond to the vicious beatings and the Civil Human Rights Front and Labour Party filed complaints to the ICAC, saying the police had simply failed to take any action.

Sources told RTHK at the time that the ICAC had set up a task force to look into whether any police officers committed misconduct in public office in relation to the Yuen Long attack.

In January, the government said 41 civil servants had been arrested in connection with protests held between June and December, with 31 of them suspended from duty.