HONG KONG: A Hong Kong street artist was charged on Friday with assaulting a police officer and criminal damage, the first prosecution against an anti-government protester since the city was rocked by unprecedented demonstrations.

Sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, the city has witnessed three huge peaceful rallies as well as civil disobedience and violence from a hard core of younger protesters who have besieged the police headquarters and on Monday stormed the city’s parliament.

Authorities have vowed to hunt those behind the unrest that has plunged the semi-autonomous city’s Beijing-backed government into crisis.

Pun Ho-chiu, 31, appeared in court on Friday over his alleged involvement in the blockade of the city’s police headquarters on June 21.

He was also charged with disorderly behaviour for throwing eggs at police outside the headquarters during the six-hour siege.

A well-known activist nicknamed “Painter” for his street art, Pun was remanded in custody and faces up to ten years in jail if convicted.

He was one of the only protesters during the police siege to show himself unmasked.

In court his lawyer said he was assaulted by police who spoke to him in Mandarin — the predominant language on the Chinese mainland.

The judge said the court could not investigate the claims and directed him to the police complaints procedure.

Forensic investigators have been combing through the trashed parliament for fingerprint and DNA evidence to help identify protesters who stormed the building and left its walls daubed with slogans such as “HK is not China” and a colonial-era flag pinned to the legislature’s podium.

A tally shows at least 66 arrests have been announced by police since the protests began. But it is not clear how many of those people have been charged and police did not respond to requests for a breakdown.

The unrest presents the most severe challenge to Beijing and Hong Kong’s leaders since the city’s handover to China.

Critics say Beijing has ratcheted up control over the city in recent years, stamping down on dissidents and refusing calls for universal suffrage.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2019