Judge Rejects Expert Report In Democrats' Trial

A District Court judge has rejected an expert report on policing submitted by the defence on day one of the trial of seven prominent pro-democracy figures on illegal assembly-related charges.

A lawyer representing two of the defendants, veteran democrats Albert Ho and Martin Lee, submitted the report earlier on Wednesday, which alleges the police had not deployed enough officers to manage the crowd during the rally on August 18, 2019.

Ho and Lee are among nine activists charged with organising and taking part in an illegal assembly at Victoria Park on that day.

District Court judge Amanda Woodcock refused to admit the report on grounds that it is irrelevant to the case.

The report was compiled by Clifford Stott, a British expert in policing who in 2019 quit a panel formed by the Independent Police Complaints Council mandated to probe alleged police brutality amid the social unrest.

Stott’s report suggested that the police did not deploy enough manpower during the protest in question, even after organisers said they expected 300,000 people to turn up at the rally.

He said the force's manpower arrangement was "unusual".

The defence counsel for Ho and Lee said that was why organisers had to ask participants to follow the “flow” of crowd to enter and leave the park.

What they did on that day, the counsel submitted, was only to protect the safety of the public.

But the prosecution objected to the report, saying that if the defence wanted to argue that their clients had been trying to direct the public to leave Victoria Park, it would not be necessary for them to refer to it.

Prosecutors also questioned whether Stott would be able to make a fair assessment of the police operation, saying the expert had previously published a report criticising their enforcement action.

Ho and Lee, as well as media tycoon Jimmy Lai, former lawmakers Margaret Ng, Lee Cheuk-yan, Cyd Ho, and Leung Kwok-hung had pleaded not guilty to organising and taking part in an illegal assembly.

Former legislator Au Nok-hin had earlier admitted to organising and taking part in an unauthorised assembly, while another ex-lawmaker, Leung Yiu-chung pleaded guilty to joining the assembly. Sentencing for the pair has been adjourned to March 22.

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