Detained Hong Kong activist Owen Chow and his lawyer have pleaded not guilty to removing an “unauthorised article” – a complaint form about corrections officers – from prison.
Chow and Phyllis Woo appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning, five months after being arrested over allegedly taking a document meant for the government watchdog.
They pleaded not guilty to “carrying unauthorised article out of prison,” The Witness reported.
Senior public prosecutor Vincent Lee said the prosecution would summon eight witnesses to testify about conversations between corrections staff and the defendants, as well as to explain prison rules.
The trial is scheduled for June 27 and is expected to take three days, magistrate Don So said.
Chow, who has been detained since last January, is among the 47 democrats charged under the national security law in 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion. The case relates to primaries organised by activists ahead of the later-postponed 2020 legislative election.
In October, when Chow and Woo were first taken to court after their arrests over the document, the prosecution said the “article” in question was a letter of complaint that Woo had allegedly been given while visiting Chow at the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre almost six months ago in May.
The defence said the complaint form was intended for the Ombudsman, the government watchdog.
Books intercepted
Citing a since-deleted post on Chow’s Facebook page about the arrests, local media outlets earlier reported that the complaint stemmed from officers allegedly intercepting two books that were meant to be given to Chow.
The activist was being held at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.
Under the prison rules, inmates may receive books, periodicals, newspapers or other publications from outside the prison subject to their approval by the corrections chief.
According to the post, the two Chinese books were Hope Remark and Hope Remark 2 – Heart of the Hero. The books are about Buddhist teachings and were published by a Taiwanese publisher.
Chow, who pleaded not guilty in the 47 democrats’ case, is awaiting his verdict. If convicted, he and the other ex-lawmakers and activists charged could be sentenced to life in prison.
Last December, when the trial came to a close after 118 days, one of the handpicked national security judges said the verdict could tentatively be delivered in three to four months, but that there were “no guarantees.”
Separately, last week, Chow was jailed for five years and one month over the storming of the Legislative Council on July 1, 2019, during the anti-extradition protest and unrest that year. Chow, who pleaded guilty, was among a group of 12 people in the case who were convicted of rioting on the Handover anniversary.
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