Occupy Central leaders prepare to surrender as police make plans to clear sites

Occupy Central co-founders tentatively plan to turn themselves in to police next week, the South China Morning Post has learned.

This comes as police sources say the force may begin executing from tomorrow the injunctions taken out against the Mong Kok and Admiralty sit-ins.

A core member of Occupy Central told the Post that the three organisers of the civil disobedience movement and its volunteers were planning to surrender to police on Friday next week, in an attempt to show that they were willing to accept the legal consequences of joining the "unlawful" pro-democracy protest.

"We will sit peacefully on the roads and let the police arrest us if the clearance starts earlier than Friday next week," the source said.

"We don't want to surrender before Monday - when the Hong Kong-Shanghai stocks 'through train' officially kicks off - as the last thing we want to do is to give [Chief Executive] Leung Chun-ying a chance to show Beijing that he can 'resume social order' as he promised [President] Xi Jinping ."

However, the deputy leader of the Federation of Students, Lester Shum, had some reservations. "The police are already planning to clear the sites," he said. "I would rather be arrested than surrender."

Acting Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor yesterday urged the protesters to leave the occupied sites as soon as possible, as police had already started preparations to execute the court orders.

"To uphold the rule of law, police are preparing to enforce the law, including making arrests," she said yesterday. "An injunction is a solemn order made by the court, which should be fully respected and strictly followed by all."

The three injunctions cover sections of Nathan Road, Mong Kok, and the space around Citic Tower in Admiralty, opposite government headquarters.

Under the court orders, protesters face arrest if they prevent bailiffs removing barricades.

Detectives from the elite organised crime and triad bureau, led by senior superintendent Brian Lowcock, had held day-long talks with the Department of Justice to discuss legal issues surrounding the implementation of the injunctions, according to a police source.

An application from two subsidiaries of private transport operator Kwung Chung Bus for further injunctions to eject protesters from the main Admiralty protest site on Harcourt Road was held up at the High Court yesterday. Mr Justice Thomas Au Hing-ching adjourned the case to next week so more evidence could be gathered.

The companies had argued that the blockading of parts of Connaught Road Central and Harcourt Road had hit their business, including school bus services.

Barrister Warren Chan SC, representing the bus companies, read letters from parents detailing how pupils had to wake up at 4.30am to catch school buses.

"The world has turned upside down" since the protest campaign began, Chan said, and parents and pupils were exhausted and suffering in "hell".