15 October 2015•Update: 16 October 2015
BEIJING
Seven Hong Kong police officers accused of viciously beating an Occupy activist during last year’s pro-democracy protests may face life in prison, local media reported Thursday.
The beating was captured on video, galvanising protesters at the height of mass protests for free leadership elections in the territory.
The South China Morning Post reported that the officers accused of beating Ken Tsang Kin-chiu during the Occupy protests last year were being tried for the offense.
"One more officer is also charged with one count of common assault," the Post reported.
Hong Kong law states that shooting, wounding or striking a person with intent carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The officers, who were released on bail, are expected to return to court next Monday.
Police have confirmed their names as Chief Inspector Wong Cho-sing from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau; Senior Inspector Lau Cheuk-ngai, Sergeant Pak Wing-bun and Constables Lau Hing-pui, Wong Wai-ho and Kwan Ka-ho.
Chan Siu-tan, a police constable in the Kowloon East district crime unit, has also been charged with common assault.
Tsang was attacked in Hong Kong's Tamar Park in Oct. 2015 during the police’s clearance of protesters on Lung Wo Road in Admiralty - one of the main areas of protest.
Video footage aired by local television network TVB showed a group of plainclothes officers dragging a handcuffed Tsang to a dark corner in the protest-hit public park.
Three officers are seen to repeatedly kick him while another stands over him and punches him.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that promised a high degree of autonomy from Beijing, including universal suffrage.
The 2014 Occupy protests, which involved more than 100,000 people at their peak, were seen as one of the most serious challenges to China's authority since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that ended in a bloody crackdown in Beijing.
