A Hong Kong court today swatted down a government request to temporarily suspend a previous ruling that deemed Carrie Lam’s controversial mask ban unconstitutional pending the results of an appeal.
Last month the High Court struck down a government regulation forbidding the wearing of masks at public gatherings, which was imposed under a draconian emergency powers law in an effort to curb the city’s long-running protest movement. (Masks are popular with the city’s pro-democracy protesters, both to protect against tear gas and pepper spray, and to obscure identities.)
While the government had asked the court to suspend the High Court’s invalidation of the law while it continues to challenge the decision, Appeal Court justices Jeremy Poon and Johnson Lam declined, according to RTHK — though they noted their decision was not a judgment on the government’s overall appeal of the ruling.
Poon and Lam stated that the government failed to persuade them that they had to continue to enforce the prohibition on masks in order to restore order, saying the invalidation of the ban would not embolden citizens to commit acts of violence, as the government had claimed.
Despite the judgment theoretically falling in favor of protesters, Poon and Lam stressed that the ruling was not “encouraging or condoning the use of face masks,” the Standard reports.
The Department of Justice’s broader appeal against the High Court’s invalidation of the mask ban is scheduled to begin on Jan. 9.
