Hong Kong court grants bail to pro-democracy politician Albert Ho

HONG KONG • A Hong Kong court granted bail yesterday to veteran pro-democracy politician Albert Ho after more than a year in detention on charges linked to a national security case.

Ho, 70, led the city's largest opposition group, the Democratic Party, and was a lawyer who ran his own law firm.

He was earlier denied bail by a lower court magistrate.

Media has reported that he is in poor health and has lung cancer.

High Court judge Johnny Chan referred to Ho's health in his judgment, warning that if he committed any acts endangering national security "his bail will be revoked and he won't be able to receive any kind of private medical care".

His bail conditions include restrictions on speaking publicly or in the media on issues that might endanger national security, a ban on meeting foreign officials, and the surrender of all travel documents.

Ho stands accused with two others of inciting subversion of state power under a China-imposed national security law, given their leadership roles in a now disbanded group called the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

The court was also given new details of the case.

This included an assertion by the prosecution that one of the Alliance's "operational goals" was to "end one party dictatorship", or to overthrow the Communist Party of China.

The Alliance was set up in 1989 after a crackdown by Chinese troops that killed pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

For years it organised a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on the anniversary of the crackdown to commemorate the victims.

REUTERS