HONG KONG | 7 police charged over protester’s filmed beating 

Activist Ken Tsang, center, is greeted by his supporter Audrey Eu, chairman of the Civic Party, left, as he reports to a police station in Hong Kong

Hong Kong police yesterday charged seven officers with harming an activist who was beaten in a filmed confrontation that stirred outrage among city residents at the height of the pro-democracy protests last year.
The seven officers were charged jointly with one count of grievous bodily harm and one also was charged with common assault, a statement from police said. They are due to appear in a magistrate’s court Monday.
The activist, Ken Tsang, said police informed him he should also expect to be arrested. He said police called to ask him to report to a police station and told him they planned to charge him with one count of assaulting an officer and four counts of obstructing police, although it’s not clear what specific incident those charges would involve.
The accused officers, all men aged 31 to 48, were working in plainclothes at the time. The charges are being laid exactly one year after the filmed encounter that occurred during the protests that gripped the city for months.
As protesters and authorities battled into the early hours of Oct. 15, 2014, for control of an underpass outside government headquarters, local station TVB filmed officers taking a handcuffed Tsang behind a building in a nearby park.
The footage showed the officers placing Tsang on the ground, then one punches him while several others kick him. Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong, AP