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HONG KONG: Former Hong Kong legislator Ted Hui said on Sunday (December 6) that his local bank accounts appeared to have been frozen after he fled to Britain with his family to continue his pro-democracy activities.
Hui told Reuters via WhatsApp social media that the bank accounts belonging to him, his wife and his parents at Bank of China Hong Kong, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank were frozen. He did not elaborate.
Democracy activists say conditions have worsened in the former British colony after China imposed security legislation on the financial center in June, making anything that Beijing considers subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces to be punishable by up to life imprisonment.
China, which promises Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, denies restricting rights and freedoms, but Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have moved swiftly to quell dissent after anti-government protests erupted last year. and engulfed the city.
READ: Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong jailed for 13 and a half months for 2019 anti-government protest
Local media reported that at least five accounts worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars belonging to Hui and his family had been inaccessible since Saturday.
Hui contacted the banks and was told there were “comments” on his accounts, but the staff declined to provide further information, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported.
“We do not comment on the details of the individual accounts,” a Hang Seng Bank spokesman told Reuters by email. HSBC and the Bank of China did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hong Kong police said Sunday night that they were investigating a Hong Kong person, who had fled abroad with frozen bank accounts, on suspicion of money laundering and possible violation of the new national security law.
It was not immediately clear who the police were referring to.
Hui said on Thursday that he had fled Hong Kong after facing criminal charges and would seek exile in Britain.
Hui, one of the pro-democracy activists arrested last month and accused of disrupting legislative procedures, arrived in Copenhagen last week at the invitation of Danish lawmakers.
The Hong Kong Security Office issued a statement on Friday that, although it did not name Hui, said that “fleeing by jumping bail and using various excuses such as so-called ‘exile’ to avoid one’s responsibility is a shameful act of recoil, hypocritical and cowardly. ” .
Hui was one of several opposition lawmakers who left Hong Kong’s Legislative Council last month in protest at the firing of four colleagues in what they called another push by Beijing to crack down on democracy in the city.
