Xi Jinping protesters arrested and homes searched over London demonstrations

Dissidents from China and Tibet have accused British police of a significant overreaction after they were arrested under public order laws and had their houses searched following peaceful protests against the visiting Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

Shao Jiang, a survivor of the Tiananmen Square massacre now based in the UK, said he was shocked to be tackled by police after holding placards in front of Xi’s motorcade in London, and to learn his home had been searched and computers seized while he was in custody.

“It feels like it was when I was in China,” Shao told the Guardian. “Then, every time I was arrested the Chinese police would search my rooms and take things. It reminded me of that.”

Tibetan exile groups have also reacted with anger following the arrest of two women shortly after Shao for waving a Tibetan flag near Xi’s car. They also had their homes searched while under arrest.

The lawyer for the arrested women – Sonam Choden, 31, and Jamphel Lhamo, 33 – said in 40 years of legal experience he had never heard of police arresting peaceful protesters for conspiring to contravene section 5 of the Public Order Act, which concerns harassment or threatening behaviour.

Met police have reacted strongly to the accusations. In an unusual step, the force released a statement from the officer in charge of policing Xi’s visit, Commander Lucy D’Orsi, saying she was “disappointed” at suggestions the force was trying to suppress legitimate protest at the instigation of China.

Police say they believe Shao and the women had been conspiring to commit threatening behaviour; all three reject this claim.

The arrests took place on Wednesday afternoon as a motorcade carrying Xi and David Cameron arrived at Mansion House in London for a ceremonial banquet. Video shows Shao being tackled forcefully by officers as he stood near the cars holding two small placards. Choden and Lhamo were arrested soon afterwards while waving a flag.

Shao’s wife, Johanna Zhang, dismissed the idea that he was planning to threaten anyone. “That’s complete nonsense,” she said. “He was on his own, doing nothing apart from holding two A4 sheets of paper, one saying ‘end autocracy’ and the other saying ‘democracy now’. He was standing there peacefully when the police attacked him.”

Zhang said she went to a police station on Wednesday evening to bring her husband new clothes and returned home to find Met police officers had searched the address in her absence, seizing two computers, an iPad and a USB stick.

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“It happened when I was at the police station, but they never told me they were doing this,” Zhang said. “I only knew because the computers had gone and there was a warrant paper on my desk.”

Neither she nor her husband knew what police were looking for on the computers, or when they would get the possessions returned, Zhang said. “The warrant paper had a phone number on it, but they had left the wrong number,” she said.

“It’s quite shocking. We went into exile in 1997, first to Sweden and then the UK, and life in exile has been quiet so far,” she added. “I never imagined that what happened to us in China could happen here in the UK.”

The two Tibetan women also had their houses searched and computer equipment seized while they were in custody. Their lawyer, Bill Nash of BSB Solicitors, said the pair had been arrested for “a peaceful and what many would see as a legitimate non-violent protest concerning the treatment of their country by the Chinese regime”.

Nash added: “Despite the fact that no one suggests that any violence was contemplated or offered, a decision was taken to further arrest for an offence of conspiracy to contravene section 5 of the Public Order Act of 1986. In over 40 years of legal practice I have never previously heard of an arrest for such an offence.”

Police said in a statement they had reason to believe the arrested women were connected to Shao and that all three were conspiring to commit threatening behaviour. However, Tibetan groups said this was not true.

“This was a spontaneous protest, and there was no link between the Tibetan women and Shao Jiang,” said Padma Dolma from Students for a Free Tibet. “It’s simply not true for the police to say they were conspiring to do anything threatening. In our experience that is a common police tactic to stop people protesting.”

Shao tweeted a photograph of his bail conditions, showing he is not allowed within a mile of Heathrow airport; the prime minister’s country residence, Chequers; or within 100 metres of Xi, to “prevent further harassment of the victim”.

The Met said Shao was initially arrested after entering a “secure area” around the motorcade, and officers then suspected a link between him and the Tibetan activists. All were arrested under common law to prevent a breach of the peace, before “further information” led officers to suspect an offence of conspiracy to commit threatening behaviour under the Public Order Act. All three had been bailed until a later date, it added.

The subsequent statement by D’Orsi said she felt some reports intimated the police were “working to the bidding of the Chinese to suppress protest”. She continued: “The policing of the state visit was a matter for the Metropolitan police service and any other suggestion is wrong. My team and I have worked tirelessly to facilitate peaceful protest throughout the state visit.“The assertion that political manipulation of the command team or, indeed, the broader Metropolitan police took place is wrong and doesn’t reflect the facts.”