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HONG KONG: An opposition activist was arrested in Hong Kong on Sunday (September 6) by a new police squad for “speaking seditious words,” hours before a demonstration against a controversial security law.
The arrest of Tam Tak-chi, vice chairman of the radical democratic party People Power, is the latest arrest of a high-profile democracy supporter in the financial center and came on the morning that Hong Kong people were due to vote in an election. delayed due to coronavirus.
An unauthorized protest in opposition to a new law giving authorities sweeping powers, as well as the postponement of the survey and a Beijing-backed COVID-19 testing program, had more than 10,000 subscribers online.
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Tam, a former radio host known as “Fast Beat”, was arrested at his home in northeast Hong Kong by police officers from the national security squad, although he was not detained under the new law, police said.
“The gentleman we arrested this morning was arrested for uttering seditious words under section ten of the Crimes Ordinance,” said Superintendent Li Kwai-wah, referring to legislation enacted in the British colonial era to crack down on anti-government expressions.
According to Li, Tam was arrested for using words that “aroused the hatred and contempt of the government and aroused discontent and discontent among the people of Hong Kong” in speeches made in Hong Kong this summer.
Li said the national security police led the arrest because in the initial stage of the investigation the force suspected that Tam had committed “incitement to secession” in article 21 of the national security law.
“But after gathering evidence and consulting with the Justice Department, we decided that it is more appropriate to use the Crime Ordinance,” Li said.
Since the national security law was passed in Beijing and implemented in Hong Kong on June 30, 21 people, including pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai and prominent activist Agnes Chow, have been arrested on charges. of “incitement to secession”, “collusion with foreign forces” and “acts of terrorism”.
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The Hong Kong administration insists that the law has not violated the rights to freedom of expression and assembly guaranteed to the territory when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
However, certain views and expressions in previously free Hong Kong have become illegal, and activists have spoken of a profound chilling effect that has caused books to be pulled from libraries and publishers rush to amend their titles. .
