HK police arrest 3 members of student group supporting prisoners
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HONG KONG • Hong Kong police yesterday arrested three members of a pro-democracy student group, accusing them of a "conspiracy to incite subversion", including by helping to deliver snacks to prisoners with the aim of recruiting followers.
Hong Kong police have arrested more than 100 people under a national security law imposed by Beijing on the former British colony in June last year that critics say erodes the freedoms promised when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Beijing and the city's government say the law is necessary to safeguard Hong Kong's prosperity and guard against outside interference.
Police Senior Superintendent Steve Li told reporters that police arrested two men and one woman, aged 18 to 20, saying that they incited hatred of the government and had urged others not to obey the law and to subvert state power. He did not identify them.
Mr Li said a group known as Student Politicism had set up street booths to spread what he called hateful speech against the government, including urging people not to use a government app aimed at tracking the spread of the coronavirus.
He also said the group had used its office in Mong Kok to allow people with similar goals to gather and continue to incite hatred towards the government.
Police raided the group's warehouse and seized large quantities of sweets, M&M's chocolates, baby powder, dried shredded squid, surgical masks, biscuits, lotion and books - all items on a list of goods that prisoners are allowed to receive from outside - as evidence.
Mr Li suggested that democracy activists were using the items to win over followers in prison.
"Helping prisoners is not a problem but it depends on the intention," he said. "If the intention is to help prisoners with the same beliefs and to recruit followers... to continue to violate national security, it is a problem for sure."
The group also used slogans declared illegal under the new national security law and told people to "prepare for the next revolution", Mr Li said.
The group said on its Facebook page that two of its leaders, Wong Yat Chin and Chan Chi Sum, were among the three arrested. It did not identify the third person. It did not respond to a request for comment.
English daily The Standard identified the third person as spokesman Chu Wai Ying.
REUTERS
