Three Hong Kong men who allegedly fired water guns at police and reporters from local outlet TVB during a Thai water festival have pleaded not guilty to attacking a police officer and common assault.
Tsang Wai-shing, Ip Ka-kin and Yuen Tsz-kin appeared at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. They denied the charges, which involved three police officers and two reporters.
They were each accused of five offences, among them three charges of attacking a police officer and two common assault charges involving TVB reporters.
Tsang and Yuen faced an additional charge of common assault, also involving a TVB reporter.
The charges relate to an incident last April, when Songkran celebrations took place in Kowloon City to celebrate Thai new year. The district is known as “little Thailand” due to its Thai community.
The celebration sees revellers splash and squirt water on each other to symbolise washing away sins and bad luck. The 2023 event was the first since Covid-19 broke out in 2020.
Magistrate Philip Chan scheduled a pre-trial hearing for April 18, local media outlets reported. The prosecution told the court it had identified 17 witnesses to testify at the trial, and that it would present two videos of the incident and an Instagram post to the court.
The three defendants remained on bail on conditions including reporting to the police every day and remaining in Hong Kong.
‘Ulterior motives’
The trio were arrested in the days following the Songkran festival, after videos were shared on YouTube showing people blasting water guns at police officers and reporters.
The videos, uploaded onto a channel called “Bravedogdog” that appeared to be owned by Tsang, included captions such as “Vs HK Po[lice]” and “Diu7TVB,” meaning “fuck TVB.”
During an April press conference announcing the arrests, police said the trio had “intended and had attempted to breach public peace” and that their acts had lasted three minutes in total. The group then posted a video of the incident online with “seditious wordings,” police added.
“These celebration events are not an opportunity for those with ulterior motives to vent their frustrations and disrupt order,” the officer said.
Relations between police and the public deteriorated during the protests in 2019, which were triggered by a controversial extradition bill and ballooned into a wider display of opposition against the Beijing and Hong Kong governments. Police were accused of using excessive force to disperse protests.
Pro-democracy supporters also labelled local broadcaster TVB as a pro-government outlet, believing that they reported on the protests unfairly and were sympathetic to the authorities.
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