The police have charged four men for loitering after they were arrested last year for allegedly following then-Legislative Council candidate Eddie Chu Hoi-dick.
Chu said on September 4 last year – the day of Legislative Council elections – that he was followed by a car in Yuen Long, and that people in the car were taking photos of him and his supporters. After he was elected a lawmaker, he reported “serious threats” to him and his family to the police on September 8 and requested protection.
Two weeks later, six men were arrested in the New Territories for alleged criminal intimidation. The police said at the time that preliminary investigation found they had “triad backgrounds.”
On Thursday, the police told HKFP that four of the arrested men, who were aged between 18 and 42, were charged with one count of loitering.
Their case will be heard at the Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The remaining two men, aged 39 and 54, were released unconditionally.
Loitering carries a maximum punishment of two years in jail.
Chu, who won the highest number of votes in geographical constituencies in the election, focused his election campaign on challenging developments in the New Territories.
One of the cases with the biggest impact that Chu brought up was the Wang Chau development controversy in Yuen Long. It arose after the government chose not to develop a brownfield site – polluted farmland – operated by a powerful rural leader into public housing, but decided that hundreds of villagers on a greenbelt land nearby must leave to make room for the housing project.
Chu alleged that there was “collusion” between the government, businesses, rural leaders and the triads. He said that he received threats warning him against further involvement in the Wang Chau case before the election.
The police said last September that there was no evidence showing that the six men arrested were connected to the Wang Chau dispute.
