Ex-CHRF leader fined for not handing over information

The former convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), Figo Chan, was on Monday fined HK$8,000 by the West Kowloon Court after pleading guilty to failing to comply with a police request to submit information.

Acting chief magistrate Peter Law had reduced his fine by one third, after consider Chan’s guilty plea.

Earlier in the year, the police accused the CHRF of failing to register under the Societies Ordinance and demanded it had over information relating to its financing and protests it organised.

The front did not comply with those demands.

Chan is currently in jail after being convicted of various protest-related offences.

He had told the court during mitigation that the front had been organising legal protests and had been a partner of the police for 19 years.

He said the CHRF didn’t register with the police because it didn’t agree with the Societies Ordinance and the Public Order Ordinance, and questioned why the force didn’t ask its founders about the matter when it was created.

The CHRF disbanded in August, saying it could no longer operate in the face of “suppression from the authorities”.