A three-day “in-depth” investigation into a protest organizer’s accusations of being persecuted by law-enforcement authorities was closed yesterday, the Judiciary Police (PJ) told a press conference.
Last Friday, Wong Wai Man, head of a local construction bar-bender trade union, said that he had been followed and harassed by plainclothes police officers after his declaration of the May 1 protest.
The report on his comment prompted Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak to order an investigation be initiated.
The PJ disclosed yesterday that on May 6 it invited Wong Wai Man to assist in the investigations. Wong met with the police for four hours that afternoon.
He was asked to show inspectors the WeChat messages that he claimed to have received from the Public Security Police Force (PSP). He only showed some to the authorities. The PJ said that due to data privacy considerations, the police could not force Wong to disclose all the messages.
Wong said last Friday that the PSP had attempted to persuade him to drop the protest over WeChat messages. The PSP was claimed to have cited the risk of the protest being hijacked by adjacent causes and the need to preserve societal harmony as reasons behind their persuasion efforts.
According to the PJ, during the meeting, Wong admitted to withdrawing the protest declaration on the grounds of “protecting the interests of society as a whole and not wanting the topic of the protest to be highjacked.”
The police also disclosed that after meeting with Wong, they also retrieved surveillance camera footage near the locations where Wong claimed to be followed. The police also reviewed the PSP logs as part of the investigation.
As a result of these investigations, the PJ found that Wong’s allegations were groundless and unfounded. The police also described the first news report as “not true.”
Wong also said last Friday that he was once forced to drive over the legal speed limit to escape another car, which he believed to be following him. He also said his association headquarters were investigated without cause as the association was reported to have links with illegal gambling and the Falun Gong.
The PJ referred to PSP records to attempt to prove that traffic violation charges pressed against Wong were legitimate. According to the PJ, from 2018 to 2022, Wong has been found guilty of five traffic violations and 111 instances of parking illegally.
From Jan. 1 to yesterday, Wong was fined 15 times for illegal parking and once for speeding. During the period of those 15 fines, 124 other vehicles were also fined. As such, the PJ believed that there was no preferential law-enforcement.
As for his association headquarters, the PJ said, from 2018 to April 2023, at least five complaints of illegal gambling had been received by the PSP. However, Wong told the police that the four mahjong tables were set up to allow association members to conduct games for leisure.
The PSP yesterday issued a statement, saying that Wong’s accusations were “completely inconsistent with the facts as well as seriously violating the reputation of the police. The PSP strongly condemns the act and will follow up the possible offences related to the incident, and consider whether the relevant persons should be held criminally responsible.”
