HK \\\'Occupy\\\' leaders surrender to police

FE Team | Published: December 04, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

(L-R) Former head of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen walks with Occupy Central civil disobedience founders, Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, professor of sociology at Chinese University Chan Kin-man and law professor at the University of Hong

HONG KONG, Dec 3 (Reuters): Leaders of Hong Kong's Occupy Central movement surrendered to police on Wednesday for their role in democracy protests that the government has deemed illegal, the latest sign that the civil disobedience campaign may be running out of steam.
Three founders turned themselves in a day after calling on students to retreat from protest sites in the Asia financial center amid fears of further violence, just hours after student leader Joshua Wong had called on supporters to regroup.
Pro-Beijing groups taunted Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming as they entered a police station just two subway stops from the main protest site in Admiralty, next to the Chinese-controlled city's financial center.
The three, accompanied by Cardinal Joseph Zen, 82, former Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong, filled in forms, giving personal information, and were allowed to leave without facing any charges.
"I hope we can show others the meaning of the surrender. We urge the occupation to end soon and more citizens will carry out the basic responsibility of civil disobedience, which is to surrender," said Benny Tai, the most prominent of the Occupy leaders, after he left the police station.
Police said 24 people aged between 33 and 82 had surrendered for "taking part in an unauthorized assembly", and authorities would conduct follow-up investigations based on the information provided.
More than 100,000 people took to the streets at the height of the demonstrations but numbers have dwindled to a few hundred, mostly students, and public support has waned as the protests blocked key roads and disrupted business.
Some students defied calls for them to retreat and vowed to stay put at protest sites to press their call for free elections for the city's next leader in 2017.