Hong Kong protests: police given medical reports of woman with eye injury despite her bid to block move
- Police earlier obtained a search warrant after woman and her family ignored their efforts to get hold of her medical records
- Force now reviewing information but statement from the witness is most important, senior officer says
Hong Kong police have been given the medical records of a young woman who suffered a serious eye injury during a violent protest despite her attempt to legally block the move.
Protesters say she was hit by a police beanbag round during a violent showdown in Tsim Sha Tsui on August 11, but the force is not taking the blame pending an investigation. There had been suggestions she was hit by a projectile from a protester’s catapult.
Steve Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the force’s organised crime and triad bureau, told a press conference on Monday that police had received a similar letter from the woman but that the authority had passed over the records. Officers were now reviewing the information.
“These materials will be used to match with other evidence previously obtained,” he said. “Of course, the most important part is this witness’ statement, for her to tell us where she was, what she was doing, and her relative distance from other violent protesters, so that we can compare with other independent witnesses’ statements and CCTV footage of the scene in order for us to have a clearer picture of what happened that day.”
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Li added that as police had used a search warrant to obtain the records, they could only be used in the investigation of crimes and could not be revealed to the public.
A medical source confirmed the authority had handed over the records as requested by the court.
The source said although the authority had received the woman’s legal letter, it did not “supersede the court warrant, as the latter needed to be complied with as soon as possible”.
The source said the records included the diagnosis and the treatment she received.
Additional reporting by Alvin Lum
