Five men have been rearrested in connection with rioting at a Hong Kong university campus almost five years ago, at the height of the demonstrations that erupted in 2019.
The Organised Crime and Triad Bureau on Wednesday evening rearrested five men aged 21 to 31 alleged to have been involved in violent clashes at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in November 2019, a statement issued the same day said.
“After following up the case and seeking further legal advice, the police today re-arrested the five men and charged them with one count of rioting, [including] a 24-year-old man who was also charged with one count of criminal damage,” read the statement.
Protests broke out across Hong Kong in the summer of 2019 in response to an extradition bill and grew into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour and the Hong Kong and Beijing governments.
Protesters occupied the university during a days-long police siege in one of the most dramatic moments of the protests, as clashes turned the campus and the surrounding neighbourhood into a battleground.
The five will appear at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court on July 11. As the case had entered the judicial process, police were not in a position to comment further, the statement said.
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