Another former student leader of the University of Hong Kong has been charged with obstruction for his alleged involvement in a chaotic protest at a governing council meeting in January.
Former student union external vice-president Colman Li Fung-kei received a summons for obstructing public officers in the execution of their duties on Tuesday morning. He took the summons at the Western Police Station with a lawyer. Li will appear before the Eastern Magistrates’ Court on August 16.
The charges said Li obstructed an ambulance carrying council member Leonie Ki Man-fung, who said she felt sick during a protest at the council meeting on January 26. The ambulance was delayed from leaving the scene at the Sassoon Road campus in Pok Fu Lam.
Li told Apple Daily that he was not concerned about his future after the charge, saying that the police were “looking for excuses.”
Li, 21, is a year-four student studying a politics and law double degree at the university. The police sought Li for help with their investigation on July 20, but he was completing an internship in Taiwan at the time.
His charge came after the arrest of Billy Fung Jing-en, the former president of the student union. Fung was charged for criminal intimidation and its alternative charge of disorderly conduct in a public place, in addition to criminal damage and forcible entry.
Fung denied the charges at court.
Their charges followed a chaotic HKU governing council meeting in January when students surrounded the first council meeting chaired by Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, whose appointment stirred controversy.
Members were unable to leave the campus for four hours after the meeting ended as students called for the governing body to respond to four demands to reform its structure. Prior to the protest, the students also held a week-long class boycott.
The president and vice-chancellor of HKU, Peter Mathieson, called the students’ actions “mob rule” and “totally unnecessary.” He later said that he handed footage of the protest to police to help with their investigation.
After Fung’s arrest, the student union said in a statement that it was “obviously revenge” against Fung.
