Police in Hong Kong carried out a sweeping operation against high-profile democracy campaigners on Saturday, arresting 15 activists on charges related to massive protests that rocked the Asian financial hub last year.
Among those targeted was 72-year-old media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of anti-establishment newspaper Apple Daily, who was arrested at his home. The arrested also included former lawmakers Martin Lee, Margaret Ng, Albert Ho, Leung Kwok-hung, Au Nok-hin, and current lawmaker Leung Yiu-Chung. They are all accused of organising and taking part in unlawful assemblies in August and October, according to the police.
The government has not explained the high-profile arrests, but they come days after Beijing’s most senior official in the city called for a new security law to deal with dissent. These arrests were made amid a flurry of statements and legal interpretations that further strengthened the hand of Beijing in the Asian financial centre. It is also part of a broad effort by the Hong Kong police to suppress participants of a series of protests, many of them violent, that began last year when the city’s leadership introduced a bill that would have enabled extradition to China. By mid-March, police had arrested 7,854 people on a series of charges, including taking part in a riot, unlawful assembly, assault, arson, and possession of an offensive weapon. A total of 1,252 people have been charged, according to the Hong Kong Police.
“Hong Kong upholds the rule of law. No one is above the law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Monday. He admonished foreign critics to “stop bolstering anti-China rioters and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs”.
“When all countries are now busy combating coronavirus, the authoritarian regime of China is now clamping down on democracy movements in Hong Kong,” tweeted Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong. In fact, the Hong Kong police superintendent Lam Wing-ho said he would not rule out further arrests.
Slamming the arrests, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the “arrests of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong are deeply concerning–politicised law enforcement is inconsistent with universal values of freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.”
Image Source: Financial Times
Hong Kong Police Arrest 15 High-Profile Pro-Democracy Activists
Curiously, Beijing’s most senior official in HK recently called for new security laws.
April 23, 2020
