(Hong Kong) A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist was arrested on Friday for “incitement to subversion” before a planned demonstration against the holding of the Olympic Games in Beijing, a few hours before the opening ceremony.
Posted at 6:38 a.m.
Longtime activist Koo Sze-yiu was arrested by national security police on Friday morning, reports Wen Wei Poa newspaper dependent on the Beijing Liaison Office in Hong Kong.
A police official confirmed to AFP the arrest of Mr. Koo for “incitement to subversion” as well as four other people as part of the investigation.
A few days before this arrest, an invitation bearing Mr. Koo’s name had been sent to the media to warn of a demonstration on Friday in front of the Beijing Liaison Office, the central government’s representation in Hong Kong.
“Many Hong Kong political activists and citizens have been thrown into jail and cannot spend the Lunar New Year with their families due to abuses of Hong Kong’s national security law,” reads the invitation dated 31 January.
“The central government only cares about hosting the Winter Olympics to cover up the situation and doesn’t care about miscarriages of justice in Hong Kong,” it read.
Koo Sze-yiu could not be reached to confirm that he had organized the protest, which was to be held at 10 a.m. (2 a.m. GMT) on Friday morning.
The 70-year-old activist, who has terminal cancer, has served several stints in prison, including in 2013 for burning a Chinese flag to protest the treatment of dissidents in mainland China.
Protests have been virtually banned in Hong Kong since the 2019 unrest.
The National Security Law, which came into force in 2020, punishes “secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces” with penalties of up to life in prison.
Police have arrested more than 160 people under the law, of which around 100 have been charged and are in custody awaiting trial.
The city has also applied strict anti-COVID-19 measures for two years, which prohibit any gathering of more than four people in the street.
Beijing’s hosting of the Winter Olympics prompted a diplomatic boycott by several Western countries due to China’s human rights record.