In a long-running legal battle, the court dismissed a challenge by the four followers of the spiritual movement, which is banned in mainland China, over their expulsion from Hong Kong in 2003.

However, the appeal court judges criticized the Hong Kong government for not being ‘fair and frank’ during the hearings into the expulsions.

They said that although the government was entitled to expel the four, it had given as its reason for doing so only the claim that the four posed a security risk to the territory.

The government failed to provide any evidence to support the claim and had breached its duty of candour to the people of Hong Kong, the judges said.

The four Falun Gong followers were among dozens of members of the movement from Taiwan who were refused entry to the city to attend an international meeting of Falun Gong members in February 2003.

The four were put on a flight back to Taiwan and claimed they were at no time given a reasonable explanation for the refusal to allow them to enter Hong Kong.

Falun Gong was outlawed as an ‘evil [group]’ in mainland China in 1999 but members are free to practise in Hong Kong which has freedom of speech and expression guaranteed in its mini-constitution.

The city’s Beijing-appointed administration has periodically been accused of breaching Falun Gong followers’ rights, however, by expelling foreign members or refusing to let them book government-owned venues for meetings.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1499210.php/Hong-Kong-government-criticized-for-handling-of-Falun-Gong-case