Hong Kong - A Hong Kong student taken away by police after
unfurling a Tibetan flag during the Olympic torch relay through the
city in May launched a legal challenge against her detention on
Friday.
Christina Chan, 21, was bundled into a police van and detained for
several hours after wrapping her body in the Tibet flag as the
Olympic torch was paraded through Hong Kong in May.
She complained bitterly that she had been unfairly detained while
police said at the time that they acted to protect her from angry
pro-China crowds gathered along the route of the torch.
At a preliminary hearing in Hong Kong's High Court Friday, Chan
applied for leave to launch a judicial review of the police decision
to detain her and remove her from the scene of the torch relay.
Chan, a part-time model who became a pin-up for many pro-democracy
activists following her actions, claims police failed to allow her
right to peaceful demonstration and freedom of speech.
The case was adjourned by a High Court judge who ordered Chan to
redraft legally inaccurate parts of her submission and to return to
court within a week.
The Olympic torch relay in May through Hong Kong brought out
patriotic, flag-waving crowds, many of them apparently travelling by
bus across the border from China.
It was the first leg of the torch's journey back through China to
Beijing after a controversial world tour which saw clashes between
police and anti-China demonstrators in Paris and other cities.
The Hong Kong leg saw angry confrontations between groups of
pro-China supporters dressed in red and small groups of
demonstrators protesting over Beijing's actions in Tibet and calling
for full democracy in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was a British colony for 156 years before reverting to
Chinese rule in 1997 under a 'one country, two systems' arrangement
guaranteeing freedoms denied elsewhere in China.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story