HONG KONG
Demonstrators at Hong Kong’s Mong Kok protest site were given 24 hours to clear their camp on Monday.
The notices from Phyllis KY Kwong & Associates, a legal firm representing taxi drivers, were put up around the site in west Kowloon and follow an injunction granted by the High Court authorizing the removal of barricades.
Some pro-democracy protesters said they would not resist the clearance but would leave objects on the road to create extra work for the bailiffs.
"I will leave some old newspapers there because the bailiffs have to record every item they confiscate," a hedge-fund manager, who asked not to be named, said last week. Others planned to leave behind large amounts of small-denomination coins.
“Police have met with the plaintiffs of the injunction orders on the unlawful occupation of roads in Mong Kok and the bailiffs with regard to the execution of the orders,” the government said in a statement. “Police are ready to give the fullest support to the bailiffs to execute the court order.”
According to the signs, “authorised agents will remove all the obstacles in Nathan Road between Argyle Street and Dundas Street.” The blockades at the second largest of the territory’s three protest sites, have obstructed traffic for nearly two months.
Nathan Road is at the heart of the Mong Kok protest and bailiffs could encounter some resistance as some protesters have fashioned makeshift shields that they have been practicing with.
Last week bailiffs removed part of the protest site outside CITIC Tower in Admiralty. Tuesday's removals followed a similar legal manoeuver and protesters cooperated with the bailiffs as police watched on. A third site at Causeway Bay is not subject to any court orders.
Like the notices issued at Admiralty, the Mong Kok orders allow for anyone obstructing the removals to be arrested for “criminal contempt of court.”
Police and bailiffs will remove occupiers' belongings and property if they do not comply with the injunction.
The demonstrations are the largest the former British colony has seen since China resumed sovereignty over the territory in 1997.
The protesters' main demand is that Beijing makes the 2017 chief executive election open to all candidates. The central government, backed by the Hong Kong executive, has plans for candidates to be screened.
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