Police 'ready to carry out Hong Kong protest arrests'
Government lawyer says police are ready to enforce injunctions to clear protest sites
HONG KONG
Police are ready to arrest pro-democracy activists who have ignored court orders to leave Hong Kong’s protest sites, local media reported Monday.
Barrister Jin Pao, acting for the Hong Kong government, made the claim in court as he asked the court to extend the injunctions and allow police to arrest anyone they “reasonably believe or suspect are in contravention of injunction orders,” the South China Morning Post said.
Lawyers for two protesters said the court should not direct police action.
Last week the High Court granted temporary injunctions forbidding protesters from occupying some streets around the Admiralty and Mong Kok protest sites. The orders, which are posted at the sites, have been widely ignored.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the groups leading the protest movement, has said it would not ask protesters to leave.
The case has been brought by taxi drivers, a minibus operators’ group and Goldon Investment, the owner of the Citic Tower office block.
Scuffles have broken out at the protest sites as groups of men, some identifying themselves as taxi drivers, attempted to dismantle the barricades erected by demonstrators, claiming they were enforcing the injunctions.
When a group began tearing down barriers with chainsaws and sledgehammers last week, protesters resisted and tempers flared.
Meanwhile, protest leaders Monday called for the government to hold a referendum on political reform.
Benny Tai, a University of Hong Kong law professor, said such a move would give demonstrators confidence their demands would be given consideration.
“A responsible government would be attentive and determined to respond to people's demands, regardless of the legal liability of such a referendum,” he told the government-funded broadcaster RTHK. “If arrangements for such a vote are made, I believe citizens in occupied areas would be willing to go home.”
Student leaders also said a vote could persuade people occupying roads to leave.
The remarks came amid speculation that pro-democracy lawmakers could resign to force a referendum, as some Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats lawmakers did in 2010.
“When the timing is right, pan-democrat lawmakers will not hesitate to resign from their positions in order to force a de facto referendum,” Alan Leong, leader of the Civic Party, said Saturday.
The protest, which has lasted more than a month, is over reform to a system proposed by Beijing for the 2017 chief executive election. China has proposed that two or three candidates for the territory's top political post are selected by a nominating committee – a system the demonstrators claim will result in the selection of pro-Beijing candidates.
