53 people arrested… Also includes American lawyers
Blincoln “strongly opposed to democratic oppression”
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Hong Kong police arrested 50 people from the pan-democracy camp for violating Hong Kong Security Law. The police launched the largest arrest operation in six months after the Hong Kong Security Law was enforced.
According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 6th (local time), the Hong Kong police said they had arrested 53 people on charges of violating the Hong Kong Security Law. Six of them were arrested for attempting to overthrow by organizing a primary election to neutralize the Hong Kong government, while the remaining 47 were arrested for helping them. Hong Kong police warned that the number of arrests could increase as investigations are underway.
Hong Kong media reported that the arrests were related to the legislative elections scheduled to be held in September last year. It is said that they organized and participated in an informal primary election to determine a single candidate for opposition by five regional divisions about two months ahead of the election scheduled for September 6 last year to overthrow the country. The Hong Kong Security Law makes it possible to punish four crimes, including division of the country, overthrow of the state regime, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign forces, with the highest sentence of life imprisonment.
In particular, the personnel arrested on the day include an American lawyer, which is controversial. More than 30 Hong Kong police officers raided the office of the law firm’Horse Y and Partners’ and arrested John Clancy, an American citizen, a secretary attorney. ‘Horse Y & Partners’ is in charge of advocating for a number of people from the pan-democracy camp, and Clancy’s lawyer is in charge of accounting for’Power for Demacrus’, an organization that helped the legislative primary election last year.
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The international community strongly opposed Hong Kong’s large-scale arrest operation. Maya Wang, a Chinese researcher at Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization, told Reuters that “today’s massive roundup is that the Chinese authorities will eliminate the pretense of democracy remaining in Hong Kong.” “Repression creates resistance, and millions of Hong Kongers will continue to fight for the right to run and vote.”
Tony Blingen, nominated Joe Biden as the first secretary of state for the next US administration, also strongly criticized the Hong Kong government. Blincoln’s nominee said on his Twitter on the 6th that “the massive arrest of protesters advocating democracy attacked people who advocate universal rights.” “The Biden-Harris administration will work with the citizens of Hong Kong to oppose the crackdown of democracy in China.”
/ Reporter Kwak Yoon-ah [email protected]
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