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HONG KONG: Former Hong Kong Democratic legislator and activist Ted Hui, who fled to Britain after facing criminal charges, said some of his bank accounts had been unfrozen and that he had moved funds quickly from HSBC, adding that he no longer trusted at the global bank.
Hui, who faces charges related to demonstrations in the city last year, said on Sunday (December 6) that his Hong Kong bank accounts had been frozen after he left the city for exile in Britain with his family to continue his activities.
“Due to the total mistrust of HSBC in Hong Kong, my family immediately transferred their savings to some safe places,” Hui said on his Facebook page.
HSBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
LEE: Former Hong Kong legislator Ted Hui says his bank accounts are frozen
Hui, who was one of several opposition lawmakers who left the Legislative Council last month in protest at the firing of four colleagues in what they called another push by Beijing to clamp down on democracy in the city, urged Hong Kong and regulators financial institutions to investigate your case. .
The veteran activist had told Reuters via social media on Sunday 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.
HSBC has been caught in the crosshairs of protests in the former British colony, its largest market, with its branches vandalized during some rallies.
Some protesters have accused HSBC of being an accessory to the authorities’ actions against activists, accusations the bank has denied.
“We do not comment on the details of the individual accounts,” a Hang Seng Bank spokesman told Reuters by email. The Bank of China did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hong Kong police said late Sunday 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.
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.
READ: Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong jailed for 13 and a half months for 2019 anti-government protest
China, which promises Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy under its handover deal with Britain in 1997, denies restricting rights and freedoms in the city.
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.
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. ” .
