Hong Kong, China - An appeal by eight Falun Gong members against charges they assaulted and obstructed police during a protest has highlighted gray areas in the nature of police arrests, a court heard.
Although Yeung May-wan and seven other sect members were acquitted of the initial charge of causing an obstruction in a public place, they were convicted of obstructing police while being arrested for that alleged offence.
``If the initial arrest is unlawful, the continuation of that arrest is also unlawful,'' counsel for the defendants, Paul Harris, told the Court of Final Appeal Monday.
Harris maintains that the arresting officers did not have clear and reasonable grounds to believe that an offence had occurred and therefore could not charge the protesters with obstructing an arrest.
``There was no attempt to evaluate the extent of the obstruction,'' nor any attempt to consider their right to demonstrate before ordering the arrests,'' he said.
Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal, Kemal Bokhary, noted that Harris' argument would make it difficult for police officers to execute their duties. ``Not everyone who has been acquitted can be considered as unlawfully arrested,'' Bokhary said.
It is the duty of the officers to bring the protesters into the police station either to arrest or question them, he said.
It is impossible for officers to predict whether the arrests will result in convictions and their duties will be hindered if they have to be wary of their actions later being classified as ``unlawful.''
``They [the police] look to us to define the law so they can execute their duty,'' he said.
Whether one has the over-riding right to protest even when being charged and arrested by the police is another gray area which will be debated in the course of the hearing.
Yeung May-wan and her fellow practitioners were arrested in March 2002 outside the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Sheung Wan.
They were accused of obstructing the pavement with a banner that read ``Jiang Zemin: Stop Killing.''
Further charges of obstructing the execution of police duties were added when they refused to leave the police vehicle.
Last November, the Court of Appeal ruled that the nature of their protest was not a contravention of any law, but their actions inside the police vehicle was nevertheless an obstruction of police executing their duties.
Although Justice of Appeal Frank Stock concurred they should remain convicted on that charge, he nevertheless raised doubts on whether the arresting officer ``had reasonable grounds for suspecting a public place obstruction offence.''
The Falun Gong spiritual group is legal in Hong Kong but has been banned on the mainland since 1999 and labeled an ``evil cult.''
One of the Falun Gong defendants in this hearing, New Zealand citizen Jenny Lee, was refused entry into the territory last December.
At the time, her fellow practitioner and defendant, Lu Jie, said she was coming to see her lawyer and hear the case.
The hearing will resume tomorrow and continue for another two days.