The Civil Service Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Thursday that 42 civil servants had been suspended from duty by the end of February for being arrested on participating in violent protests.
In a written reply to the HKSAR Legislative Council, the bureau said they are among the 43 civil servants under investigation or being prosecuted for suspected of participating in violent protests since June 2019.
If a civil servant is being investigated on whether he or she has committed a criminal offence, the authorities can suspend his or her duty according to the established mechanism, the bureau said.
The suspension is neither a disciplinary punishment nor an assumption of being guilty, but a decision regarding those civil servants temporarily unsuitable to perform their public duties, it added.
Months of violent protests, always accompanied by vandalism of shops and metro stations and bitter assaults on police and residents, plunged Hong Kong into chaos in the second half of last year, with social order damaged, the rule of law jeopardized and economic activities disrupted.
The bureau also said it is studying topics including requiring all civil servants to swear allegiance to the Basic Law and the HKSAR.
