Hong Kong police officer stabbed during 2020 protest seeks at least HK$220K in damages

A Hong Kong police officer has sought at least HK$220,000 in damages from a man who stabbed him during a protest in 2020.

Lui Chun-kit addressed the courtroom at the District Court on Monday, testifying that he sustained multiple muscle tears and required surgery.

The officer was knifed in the shoulder and left elbow on the afternoon of July 1, 2020 while carrying out crowd control. That day, protesters had gathered in Causeway Bay to oppose Beijing’s passing of a national security law for Hong Kong following the anti-extradition protests and unrest that began the year before.

Wong Kwan-wa, from whom he is seeking the compensation, did not appear in court. Wong pleaded guilty to rioting and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm in 2022, and was jailed for five years.

Lui told the court that he had to attend 15 physiotherapy sessions, which he completed in September 2020, The Witness reported. But he continued to have limited mobility in his left shoulder, and only fully recovered in 2022.

Lui now works in the police’s public relations team. He had been an officer in the Police Tactical Unit at the time, and was due to be transferred to the Emergency Unit that December.

“I prefer operational work. Now, I am doing back-office clerical work for the police. It feels like a letdown,” Lui said in Cantonese.

He added that he suffers flashbacks when he returns to Causeway Road, near where the attack happened.

The HK$220,000 he is seeking is for his suffering, loss of income, and “permanent loss of earning capacity and promotion opportunities,” the court heard.

‘Sharp pain’

According to a court document, Lui and his colleagues were deployed to an unlawful assembly in Causeway Bay on the late afternoon of July 1, 2020.

Protesters had occupied main roads and ignored police warnings to disperse. When Lui was carrying out arrests, protesters surrounded him and attempted to intervene.

He testified to the court that somebody grabbed him in a chokehold, and a woman used an umbrella to hit him.

“As many people were surrounding me, suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder, like something had pierced it… then, my arm went limp,” Lui said in Cantonese.

Ahead of Lui’s testimony, Judge Phyllis Loh questioned why Lui’s legal team was only adding additional clauses for compensation now, three years after the case began.

Loh also raised questions about why the damages sought were reduced from almost HK$1 million to around HK$220,000, suggesting Lui had exaggerated the amount at the beginning.

She is expected to hand down her judgement within three months.

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Hillary Leung is a journalist at Hong Kong Free Press, where she reports on local politics and social issues, and assists with editing. Since joining in late 2021, she has covered the Covid-19 pandemic, political court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial, and challenges faced by minority communities.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hillary completed her undergraduate degree in journalism and sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She worked at TIME Magazine in 2019, where she wrote about Asia and overnight US news before turning her focus to the protests that began that summer. At Coconuts Hong Kong, she covered general news and wrote features, including about a Black Lives Matter march that drew controversy amid the local pro-democracy movement and two sisters who were born to a domestic worker and lived undocumented for 30 years in Hong Kong.