(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Three co-founders of Hong Kong's pro-democracy "Occupy Central" movement and dozens of supporters were released without charge after they turned themselves into police on Wednesday, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.
Benny Tai and his two colleagues arrived at the police station carrying a letter which they had all signed, stating that they had taken part in a rally from September 28 and may have broken laws under the Public Order Ordinance, the major daily said.
Some 60 pro-democracy supporters completed a statement, detailing their participation in the movement and their personal details. They handed the statements to police, who took no further action.
Tai said that police gave organizers a form to complete. "There is a list of possible offences that we might have committed," Tai was quoted as saying. "Our advice for participants is that we participated in an unauthorized assembly." Offences on the list also included organizing or inciting people to participate in an unauthorized assembly, vandalism and obstructing a policeman's duty, he said.
Tai also said today marks an end to the civil disobedience actions advocated by Occupy Central, but Hong Kong's democratic movement will continue. Summing up the two months of protests, Tai said the scale of the campaign turned out to be beyond anything organizers had anticipated. Student-led blockades of downtown streets in Hong Kong have continued since September 28 in protest at the August 31 decision by China's National People's Congress Standing Committee to restrict candidates for the 2017 chief executive election to those approved by a pro-Beijing nominating panel.
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