Tue Sep 20, 2005
Hong Kong - Four [practitioners] of the Falun Gong spiritual movement challenged the Hong Kong government in court on Tuesday for barring them from entering the city in 2003, saying it was unlawful and amounted to discrimination.
The four are among 80 people from Taiwan turned away by Hong Kong immigration authorities in February 2003, when they arrived in the city to take part in an international conference of the Falun Gong, which is banned in China.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 but was allowed to keep its own ways of life, including religious freedom. The incident in 2003 raised fears about threats to personal rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.
Many of those turned away were carried forcibly on to the next available flights back to Taiwan.
A lawyer for the four Falun Gong plaintiffs said by barring their entry, the government had breached the city's constitution.
"These decisions were unlawful and were based on religious beliefs of the applicants ... and not based on legitimate and rational grounds," Paul Harris told the High Court in a pre-judicial review hearing.
"They have been admitted to Hong Kong before ... so for 80 people to be stopped en masse, the natural inference must be that they were stopped for their Falun Gong affiliation."
The Hong Kong government never gave any reason for turning the 80 people away. A government spokesman declined to make any comment on the court case.
Harris is also trying to compel the government to say if it keeps a blacklist of people it will not admit into the territory.
"(We) seek to challenge the decision to place the applicants on a watch list and the rationale for doing so ... what was it that the officers who actually took the decision to refuse entry had in front of them?" Harris said.
The court will decide whether or not the government has to provide that information before the judicial review starts. The date for the judicial review has yet to be set.
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