Zou Xingtong and a member of the Stake Standing Committee involved in violation of the National Security Judge and the quasi-five defendants were released on bail and refused to accept the terms

Several related persons of the Stake were arrested by the National Security Department of the police earlier. Among them, former vice chairman Zou Xingtong and four other members of the Standing Committee were accused of failing to comply with the notice issued by the National Security Law Implementation Rules.

The case was pre-trial in the West Kowloon Court yesterday (21st), and Zou Xingtong, Deng Yuejun, and Xu Hanguang all applied for bail. After hearing the submissions yesterday, Acting Chief Magistrate Luo Chuan considered overnight, and today (22nd) approved the bail of the three. Said that all defendants would be treated equally and the remaining two defendants who did not apply were allowed to be released on bail.

However, including Zou Xingtong and others who were dissatisfied with some of the terms, Luo Guan finally stated that he would still grant bail. As for whether to sign the bail conditions, it is up to each defendant to decide.

The case was postponed to January 25 for the second pre-trial review.

5 defendants: Stake Vice Chairman Zou Xingtong (36 years old, lawyer), Stake Standing Committee Deng Yuejun (53 years old, unemployed), Liang Jinwei (36 years old, district councilor), Chen Duowei (57 years old, driver) and Xu Hanguang ( 72 years old, retired).

Five people were involved in violating the Implementation Rules of the National Security Law. On September 8, 2021, they were served as stake officers or managers or persons who assisted in management. They were notified in accordance with the regulations, but did not comply with the requirements of the notice.

How many stake members were granted bail.

(See the picture below for details)

The official said that all defendants must be treated equally

Although the defendants Liang Jinwei and Chen Duowei did not apply for bail yesterday, Luo Guan believed that the court should treat all defendants equally and decided to approve all defendants on bail.

Zou Xingtong and Liang Jinwei immediately stated that they had failed to comply with the prosecution's bail conditions and demanded that the bail be withdrawn.

In addition, Chen Duowei also has reservations about this condition, but did not propose to withdraw bail.

The bail conditions are as follows:

1) Do not directly or indirectly use any method (including traditional entities/electronic media/any public platform) to make, distribute or reprint speech that may constitute a violation of the National Security Law or the crime of endangering national security in Hong Kong laws;

2) Do not directly or indirectly use any method (including traditional entities/electronic media/any public platform) to do any behavior that may constitute a violation of the National Security Law or a crime that endangers national security in the laws of Hong Kong;

3) If you live at the reported address, you must notify the police within 24 hours if there is any change;

4) Report to the police station once a week;

5) Not allowed to leave Hong Kong;

6) Cash 1,000 or 10,000 Hong Kong dollars;

7. Hand over all travel documents, including BNO.

The official said earlier refusal to bail was a precaution rather than punishment

When he granted bail, Guan Luo stated that the police had seized a large number of exhibits at the location involved in the case, and that the case has been widely reported by the media. The destruction of evidence by other suspects who are still at large should have been completed, so the risk has been greatly reduced.

The court refused the defendant’s bail earlier to prevent things from happening, not to punish them. Therefore, after re-examining the case, the court finally grants a guarantee.

Zou's accuser's new conditions are vague

The prosecution immediately asked for an additional bail condition, that is, not to directly or indirectly use any means to make, distribute or reprint speech and behavior that could constitute a violation of the National Security Law.

However, Zou said that she would not accept the condition, saying that the content of the condition was vague and she did not know how to comply. Just as she did not believe that the stake had committed any violations of the National Security Law in the past 23 years, she said she would not promise that the court had failed to fail. What she will do also means that if it is between personal freedom and freedom of speech, she will choose the latter.

Leung Kam-wai also stated that he would not give up his freedom of speech. In addition, he is still a district councilor. He often needs to participate in meetings and interviews, and he also needs to speak up for people in the district, so he could not accept the conditions.

Case Number: WKCC3633/2021

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