A British human rights observer who was detained by Hong Kong police for more than 15 hours, denied access to food and deprived of sleep has raised concerns that the force is abusing its powers as a clampdown against protesters intensifies.
Robert Godden, 49, was taken into custody on the morning of November 18 with a local colleague from Rights Exposure, a human rights consultancy, near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, after a night of clashes between demonstrators and riot police.
Although they were wearing vests declaring their roles and carrying identification, police detained them on suspicion of participating in a riot, he said. “I explained to them what we were doing, that it’s legitimate human rights work, that we’re a legally registered Hong Kong company, but they ignored that,” Mr Godden said. He has since been released on bail, pending charges.
Police abuse has become a crucial issue of the five-month movement, with protesters making an independent investigation against police brutality one of their core demands. President Xi of China has urged Hong Kong’s police to “strictly enforce the law” and many believe the force feels that it can act with impunity. Since the protests began in June more than 5,800 people have been arrested and more than 900 charged. Last week police arrested and registered 1,100 people on and near the campus of the polytechnic university. Chinese state media suggested that they were “rioters”. Also detained were university students, student journalists, medics and mothers who had come to look for their children, Mr Godden said, calling the detentions “very arbitrary and very indiscriminate”. Mr Godden claimed that while he and his female colleague were booked at a police station in Ho Man Tin, they were subject to “torrents” of abuse, with an officer making racial and sexual slurs in Cantonese. “You can use your imagination,” he said. He said that they were put in a holding area with about 40 to 50 detainees. All were ordered to sit in hard chairs with an attached desk and to face officers. “We were not allowed to talk,” he said. Meals and fresh pastries were brought in for the officers, who ate in front of the detainees, he said. He was given a banana declined by an officer. At one stage he heard “howls of pain” from behind a curtained off area near by. “It was kind of chilling, and the incident went on for about five minutes,” Mr Godden said. He suspected that officers were pinning a detainee against a metal shutter. “The amount of violence and the physical noise of struggle caused great concern,” he added.