HK cancels passports of 7 activists based overseas
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The latest measures are part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government cancelled the passports of seven overseas-based activists under a new national security law and banned the handling of funds related to these individuals.
The seven were listed in a government notice on Dec 24 as absconders for offences endangering national security. They are former lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, as well as activists Kevin Yam, Kwok Fung-yee, Elmer Yuan, Hui Wing-ting and Joey Siu.
The latest measures are part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent, and carried out under the new powers granted by Hong Kong’s home-grown national security law enacted earlier in 2024
Authorities also used the new legislation to ban anyone from funding, renting, buying or selling property to, or having joint ventures with the seven people.
So far, no one has been arrested for funding the individuals.
“If offenders voluntarily cease their criminal activities and provide information that leads to the arrest of others, their own offences may be dealt with more leniently,” deputy commissioner of police (national security) Kan Kai-yan said at a briefing.
The government suspended the law practice qualifications of Mr Kwok and Mr Yam, according to the notice. Mr Kwok is a partner at New York-based law firm Elliott Kwok Levine Jaroslaw Neils LLP, while Mr Yam is a PhD student at the Melbourne Law School after returning to Australia in 2022.
Businessman Yuan has been ordered to be temporarily removed as director of seven companies. He is the father-in-law of pro-Beijing politician Eunice Yung.
Two years ago, Ms Yung took out a newspaper advertisement to announce that she was severing ties with Mr Yuan after he was accused of subversion.
On Dec 24, the government added six more individuals to the wanted list, offering a HK$1 million (S$174,856) bounty for each, and accusing them of harming the interests of the people of Hong Kong.
The people include scholar and public opinion pollster Chung Kim-wah, and former singer and actor Joseph Tay, who runs a radio station in Canada and intends to stand in an upcoming local election. BLOOMBERG
