Hong Kong to charge 44 protesters with rioting: police source

Hong Kong will charge 44 protesters detained during recent violent clashes with rioting, a charge that carries up to ten years in jail, a senior police source said Tuesday.

"We are in the process of charging them. A formal press statement will be issued later tonight," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Hong Kong has been hit by weeks of mass protest marches -- some of which have ended in violence -- triggered by a controversial bill which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.

They have evolved into calls for wider democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms.

Beijing has issued increasingly shrill condemnations of the protests, but has left it to the city's government to deal with the situation.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has shown no sign of backing down beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill.