Over 7,600 people arrested over HK violent protests related to fugitive bill (China-Hong Kong)

Updated 18:42, 03-Apr-2020

CGTN

7,613 people were arrested between June 9 last year and the end of February this year over sometimes violent protests related to the withdrawn fugitive bill, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) revealed on Friday. 

In a written reply to the Legislative Council (LegCo), the Department of Justice of HKSAR said these people were arrested over offenses including taking part in a riot, unlawful assembly, arson, criminal damage and assaulting a police officer.

The department said cases of 1,235 people have been processed or are still in progress, among whom 78 must bear relevant legal consequences.

Over 500 arrested were released without condition while 5,860 others were still being investigated.

The department also said on Friday that it is deploying more manpower to assist in work relating to prosecution decisions. 

On Thursday, the Civil Service Bureau of the HKSAR government also said 42 civil servants had been suspended from duty by the end of February for being arrested for participating in violent protests.

These people were among the 43 civil servants under investigation or being prosecuted for suspected participation in violent protests since June 2019.

If a civil servant is being investigated on whether he or she has committed a criminal offense, the authorities can suspend him or her according to the established mechanism, the bureau said.

The suspension is neither a disciplinary punishment nor an assumption of being guilty, but a decision regarding those civil servants temporarily unsuitable to perform their public duties, it added.

Months of violent protests, always accompanied by vandalism of shops and metro stations and bitter assaults on police and residents, plunged Hong Kong into chaos in the second half of last year, with social order damaged, the rule of law jeopardized and economic activities disrupted.

The bureau also said it is studying topics, including requiring all civil servants to swear allegiance to the Basic Law and the HKSAR government.

(With input from Xinhua News agency)