Hong Kong protests: First charges laid under face mask ban
An 18-year-old student and a 38-year-old unemployed woman have become the first to be charged under Hong Kong’s new face mask ban.
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Two protesters have been charged with violating Hong Kong’s new ban that criminalises the wearing of masks at rallies.
The charges filed yesterday are the first prosecution under the ban that took effect on Saturday under sweeping emergency powers to quash rising violence in four months of anti-government protests.
But the ban sparked more anger with rallies and violence in the last three days in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
An 18-year-old student and a 38-year-old unemployed woman were detained early on Saturday shortly after the ban took effect and charged yesterday with illegal assembly and for violating the mask ban.
They were both released on bail pending trial.
A conviction for violating the mask ban carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a fine.
Tens of thousands of masked protesters hit Hong Kong’s rain-drenched streets on Sunday in defiance of the ban.
Riot police later swept in with volleys of tear gas and muscular arrests as peaceful rallies again degenerated into widespread violence and chaos in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
Instead of deterring rioting and calming anti-government demonstrations that have gripped the international trading hub for four months, the ban that criminalised the wearing of face masks at rallies only redoubled the determination of both peaceful marchers and more radical black-clad youths.
The hardliners again lobbed gasoline bombs and trashed subway stations and China-linked banks in the city.
For the first time in the crisis, men on the roof of one of the Chinese military’s barracks in Hong Kong raised a yellow banner warning protesters they were breaking the law when laser pointers were flashed at the building.
Police said masked rioters also attacked bystanders, including two men left unconscious after bloody beatings and a woman who took photos of rioting.
A massive peaceful march to the central business district — on streets spray-painted with the word “resist” and hemmed in by high-rise buildings that echoed with protesters’ chants — came as Hong Kong’s High Court rejected a second effort to invalidate the mask ban.
Politician Dennis Kwok said the court refused to grant an injunction but agreed to hear later this month an application by 24 legislators against Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s use of sweeping emergency powers to impose the ban without legislative approval.
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Ms Lam’s government says that the mask ban will make the identification of rioters easier for police and that other measures are possible if violence continues.
The city’s MTR network of subways and trains that was entirely closed on Saturday partially reopened on Sunday, with greatly reduced services that protesters said made travelling to rallies harder.
“Carrie Lam is not the god of Hong Kong. She can’t do anything she likes,” said retiree Patricia Anyeung, marching masked with her sister, Rebecca.
“They can’t arrest us all. There are thousands of us. There is no going back — we are at the point of no return.”
Many malls also remained shuttered as streets downtown turned into a sea of umbrellas held aloft both against rain and because they’ve become a symbol of protest, used by demonstrators as shields against police identification, tear gas and rubber bullets.
Critics fear Ms Lam’s use of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance that gives her broad powers to implement any measures she deems necessary could pave the way for more draconian moves.
The law was enacted by British colonial rulers in 1922 to quell a seamen’s strike and was last used in 1967 to crush riots.
“This emergency law is so ancient and draconian. Carrie Lam is using it as some sort of weapon of mass destruction to nuke Hong Kong,” said politician Claudia Mo.
Ms Lam says she will seek the legislature’s backing for the mask ban when it meets next on October 16.
The ban makes the wearing of masks and even face paint both illegal and police-approved gatherings punishable by up to a year in jail.
A police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said some arrests were made for violating the ban, but he couldn’t give any numbers.
Enforcement is tricky in a city where many have worn surgical masks since a deadly respiratory disease outbreak in 2003.
Groups of black-clad youths roamed the city centre, setting up barricades, covering the urban landscape with anti-China graffiti, cutting power lines to traffic lights and using walkie-talkies and messaging apps to co-ordinate.
The shooting of a 14-year-old boy on Friday night — the second protest victim of police gunfire — stoked fears of more bloody confrontations.
An 18-year-old protester was shot at close range by a riot officer on Tuesday.
Police said in a statement on Saturday the 14-year-old, who was hospitalised with a gunshot wound on his thigh, has been arrested for participating in a riot and assaulting a policeman.
Police have said they are still investigating exactly how he was shot.
Originally published as Hong Kong protests: First charges laid under face mask ban