Student leader released after being arrested over ‘laser guns’

An off-duty officer (left) examines a laser pointer during the arrest of student leader Keith Fong (center) in Sham Shui Po on Tuesday night. Screengrab via RTHK video.
An off-duty officer (left) examines a laser pointer during the arrest of student leader Keith Fong (center) in Sham Shui Po on Tuesday night. Screengrab via RTHK video.

Keith Fong, the student leader who was arrested on Tuesday night on weapons charges for possessing laser pointers, was released without charge yesterday.

RTHK reports that Fong, the president of the Hong Kong Baptist University Students’ Union, was released after the 48-hour period for which police are allowed to hold suspects without charge elapsed, though police said they reserved the right to prosecute him at a later date.

Fong was stopped and searched on Tuesday night by five off-duty police officers in Shum Shui Po because he looked “suspicious,” police said. He was arrested after officers found he was carrying 10 laser pointers, which he had just bought at a nearby store.

Police brought him in on suspicion of “possessing offensive weapons,” referring to the pointers — which have been used by pro-democracy protesters to confuse police and blind security cameras — as “laser guns.”

The arrest drew a swift backlash, and no small amount of ridicule, with student groups accusing police of “fabricating a charge” and a crowd besieging the Sham Shui Po police station on Tuesday night to call for Fong’s release. Police ultimately fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

On Wednesday night, hundreds of protesters gathered at a planetarium in Tsim Sha Tsui to put on an impromptu laser light show on the side of the building in mockery of police’s claim that the laser pointers — which are legal to sell and possess — were “offensive weapons.”

Fong is expected to speak to the press sometime today, according to RTHK.



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