September 5, 2003

By Sara Bradford

A demonstration by Falun Gong members last year outside the Beijing Liaison Office should not have been halted because police were afraid that people might take offence, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.

The submission was made on the second day of the appeal against conviction, launched by 16 Falun Gong practitioners following their high-profile arrest on March 14 last year.

The protest, spearheaded by Swiss nationals, was held outside the liaison office in Connaught Road, Western, where the group unfurled a large banner bearing the words "Jiang Zemin: Stop killing".

Counsel representing five of the appellants, Paul Harris, told the court the right of peaceful assembly was enshrined in Article 17 of the Bill of Rights which echoed Article 21 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.

Mr Harris also submitted to the court that it was not clear what the actual obstruction was, since the protesters did not take up all the space on the footpath and were not approaching passers-by.

[...]