After riot police charged into Prince Edward station last year on August 31, ambushing protesters and commuters on a night that marked another turning point in the movement, rumors circulated that a black-clad demonstrator by the name of Hon Bo-sun was beaten to death.
Ahead of the anniversary, the demonstrator said he fled to the UK last month to seek asylum, and has cut all ties with friends and family back home.
Wong Mau-chun, 29, on Sunday wrote in forum LIHKG that he would be holding a Facebook live video on the afternoon of August 31. This would be the first time that Wong, who has remained low-key since the subway attack, publicly shares his story.
“After showing evidence of my identity, I will reveal my accounts of the events during the 31 August incident, how I fled to the UK, and even my ideas as to how this tyranny could be overthrown,” Wong wrote.
(He gained the alias Hon Bo-sun because he was reportedly heard yelling out “Hon Bo-sun” when a journalist asked his name when he was pressed to the ground by police. Some netizens believed his name to be Johnny Hon after the incident circulated.)
In an interview with Stand News, Wong said he and others were involved in a physical confrontation with “blue-ribbons”—people critical of the protests—on the train carriage. The “blue ribbons,” he added, had hammers and wooden sticks.
Live videos showed unidentifiable raptors, officers from the police force’s paramilitary unit, storming into train carriages and attacking defenseless protesters and commuters with batons and pepper spray. Scenes of chaos erupted as medics rushed to treat the injured commuters, leaving behind bloodied bandages and tissues.
At the platform of Prince Edward station, he was pinned down and arrested by police officers, Stand News reported.
Shortly after, the station was shut, barring even journalists from reporting and medics from delivering much-needed first aid.
The closure of the station, an initial discrepancy in the number of reported injuries and the refusal of the MTR to disclose full-length CCTV footage fuelled rumors that police were covering up fatalities that night. Authorities have repeatedly denied the claims and condemned the spread of “fake news.”
Wong, additionally, was the center of a rumor after a floating corpse was discovered off the waters of Tsuen Wan in September.
In June, police informed Wong that he faces not just one charge of illegal assembly as initially told, but eight charges including rioting, assault, criminal damage and inflicting bodily harm.
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