Yuen Long Protesters Warned Of Security Law Breach

The police and protesters were engaged in an intermittent stand-off that lasted hours on Sunday after a group of people gathered at Yuen Long to mark a mob attack that happened there last year, with officers warning some of them may have breached the new national security law.

On 21 July last year, a group of people clad in white indiscriminately beat up passengers and passers-by at Yuen Long MTR station, and police were heavily criticised for their late response.

On Sunday, a small number of people, including lawmaker Chu Hoi-dick and several pro-democracy district councillors, turned up at the station, accusing police of colluding with the triad.

Riot police officers used loudspeakers to warn people that they have violated the ban of public gatherings of more than four people, and several people were stopped and searched.

During the melee, some reporters got pepper sprayed at close range, and one reporter who got sprayed in the eyes was helped by people nearby.

Protesters later went to a shopping mall and some shouted slogans.

Officers then held up a purple flag warning that what the protesters were doing may be breaching the new security law.

Police wrote on their Facebook page that some people had shouted the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times” – which they said could have breached the provisions that criminalise acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

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