Tag: Hong Kong police

  • 8 detained, riot police on Hong Kong streets ahead of thirty fourth Tiananmen anniversary

    By Reuters: Hong Kong police talked about on Sunday that they’d detained eight people near a park, 4 of them for “seditious intention and disorderly conduct”, as authorities tightened security on the thirty fourth anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

    Restrictions in Hong Kong have stifled what had been as quickly as an important vigils marking the bloody crackdown by Chinese troops on pro-democracy demonstrators, leaving cities like London, New York, Berlin and Taipei to take care of alive the memory of the June 4 anniversary.

    Commemorations are anticipated on Sunday in on the very least 30 places in North America, Europe and Asia.

    The eight people had been detained near Victoria Park, the place for years after 1989 democracy activists gathered on the Tiananmen Square anniversary.

    Among them was artist Sanmu Chan who chanted “Do not forget June 4. Hongkongers don’t be scared”, as police led him away on Saturday evening, in step with a video clip seen by Reuters.

    The police talked about the eight had been detained after “displaying protest items loaded with seditious wordings, chanting and committing unlawful acts”.

    Hong Kong activists say such police movement is part of a broad advertising marketing campaign by China to complete dissent inside the metropolis that was promised explicit freedoms for 50 years beneath a “one country, two systems” system when former colonial vitality Britain handed it once more in 1997.

    Security is significantly tighter all through Hong Kong this yr, with as a lot as 6,000 legislation enforcement officers deployed, along with riot and anti-terrorism officers, most of the people broadcaster talked about.

    Senior officers have warned people to abide by the regulation.

    “Police are highly concerned about some people attempting to incite and provoke others to commit illegal acts that endanger national security, public order and public safety,” police talked about in an announcement.

    In Beijing, Tiananmen Square was thronged with vacationers taking pictures beneath the watchful eyes of police and totally different personnel nonetheless with no obvious sign of stepped-up security.

    A gaggle of relations generally known as the Tiananmen Mothers talked about the anguish not at all ended.

    ALSO READ | Tiananmen Square as soon as extra? Tanks roll on China streets to protect banks amid protests | Watch

    “Though 34 years have passed, for us, family members of those killed, the pain of losing our loved ones in that one night has tormented us to this day,” the group talked about in an announcement launched by the New York-based watchdog Human Rights in China.

    Despite the warnings in Hong Kong, some folks, along with some e guide retailer householders, have been quietly marking June 4.

    Jailed Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung, one in every of many leaders of a bunch generally known as The Alliance, which used to organise Hong Kong’s annual June 4 vigils sooner than it was disbanded in 2021, talked about on Facebook she would keep a 34-hour hunger strike in jail.

    In mainland China, any level out of the Tiananmen Square crackdown – the place troops opened hearth on pro-democracy protesters, killing an entire lot if not lots of, in step with rights groups – is taboo and the subject is intently censored.

    Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, requested regarding the authorities’s response to events across the globe to mark the anniversary, instructed a each day briefing in Beijing on Friday that the federal authorities had already “come to a clear conclusion about the political turmoil in the late 1980s”.

    In democratically dominated Taiwan, the one part of the Chinese-speaking world the place the anniversary can be marked freely and overtly, activists will keep a memorial in Taipei’s Liberty Square, alongside totally different actions along with a play on Tiananmen by a Hong Kong playwright.

    Vice President William Lai, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate in an election subsequent January, wrote on his Facebook internet web page that what occurred in Beijing in 1989 ought to be talked about and remembered.

    “The event commemorating June 4 has continued to be held in Taipei, which shows that democracy and authoritarianism are the biggest differences between Taiwan and China,” he talked about.

  • Skull, ribs in soup pot believed to be of lacking Hong Kong mannequin: Police

    Model Abby Choi’s head and several other ribs have been present in a cooking pot and a fridge at a flat in Lung Mei – a seaside village within the territory’s Tai Po space.

    Hong Kong Model Abby Choi disappeared on February 21

    By India Today World Desk: The police in Hong Kong are looking sewers and garbage suggestions for physique components of a mannequin after her ex-husband and shut relations have been charged along with her homicide. Choi’s ex-husband Alex Kwong, 28, his brother and his father, have been charged with killing Choi (28) – a rising star within the vogue business who went lacking final Tuesday.

    Model Abby Choi’s head and several other ribs have been present in a cooking pot and a fridge at a flat in Lung Mei – a seaside village within the territory’s Tai Po space. The property was geared up with an electrical noticed and a meat grinder that had been used to mince human flesh, based on Chung.

    The head had ‘no skin or meat on it’ and was boiled until solely her cranium remained, reported the Times of London, quoting superintendent Alan Chung.

    Also Read | Hong Kong mannequin’s severed legs present in fridge, head lacking

    A gap behind the cranium, discovered throughout forensic examination, could possibly be proof of a deadly assault.

    On Monday, the police mentioned that they have been “in search of the top” after Choi’s limbs were discovered inside a refrigerator of a village house set up as a butchery site. “Two pots of stew believed to contain human tissue” have been left on the scene, officers earlier mentioned.

    The subsequent day, officers in protecting gear went to a landfill in Ta Kwu Ling, almost a 15-minute drive from mainland China, to seek for the lacking physique components.

    The large operation with over 100 cops was set in movement after a evaluate of safety digital camera footage on Monday close to the crime scene in Tai Po allegedly confirmed a suspect transferring baggage from the flat the place the physique components have been discovered to a close-by refuse assortment space, the South China Morning Post reported.

    Also Read | Indian nationwide stabs cleaner at Sydney rail station, shot useless by police

    THE DISAPPEARANCE

    Choi, who has over 100,000 followers on Instagram, disappeared on February 21, based on a report filed with the police. Her final put up on February 19 featured a photoshoot with vogue journal L’Officiel Monaco.

    “We consider the sufferer had been attacked when she was within the automobile and that she was already unconscious when she arrived,” Chung told reporters.

    According to the police, Choi was embroiled in disputes with her ex-husband and his family over a luxury property worth tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, adding that “some people” have been sad with the best way Choi dealt with her funds.

    Choi had 4 kids, aged between three and 10, her pal Bernard Cheng mentioned. Alex Kwong was the daddy of the older two, who are actually being taken care of by Choi’s mom.

    Also Read | 32 useless, 85 injured as two trains collide in Greece

    EX-HUSBAND, IN-LAWS ARRESTED

    The 28-year-old’s ex-husband, Alex Kwong, his father, Kwong Kau, and brother Anthony Kwong have been charged with homicide on Monday and resist life in jail. The mannequin’s former mother-in-law, Jenny Li, has been charged with perverting the course of justice by destroying proof.

    Alex, who lives in an upscale flat in Kowloon, was discovered with an enormous amount of money and watches price tens of millions of {dollars} when he was arrested on Saturday as he tried to flee the town on a ship.

    A fifth suspect related to Choi’s former father-in-law was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of “aiding criminals”.

    Also Read | ‘My non secular girlfriend’: Peru man discovered carrying 800-year-old mummy in supply bag

    Published On:

    Mar 1, 2023

  • Hong Kong jails 5 speech therapists for kids’s books

    A Hong Kong court docket on Saturday sentenced 5 speech therapists to 19 months in jail for his or her function in publishing youngsters’s books deemed seditious.

    The image e book collection, which started in 2020 to elucidate the Hong Kong’s democracy motion to youngsters, portrayed the town’s pro-democracy activists as sheep defending their village from wolves.

    Prosecutors had argued the books contained “anti-China sentiment” and aimed to “incite readers’ hatred of mainland authorities.”

    The choose mentioned the books had been “a brainwashing exercise” and there was clear proof of concern, hatred and discontent being instilled in youngsters’s minds.

    Colonial-era regulation

    The group of the speech therapists joins a rising checklist of Hong Kong residents jailed over a colonial-era sedition regulation that authorities used alongside a nationwide safety regulation Beijing launched in 2020 to stamp out dissent.

    Three of them struck a defiant tone throughout Saturday’s sentencing listening to. Melody Yeung instructed the court docket she has no regrets about her choices and hopes to all the time stand by the sheep.

    “My only regret is I couldn’t publish more picture books before getting arrested,” she mentioned.

    The convicts, all of their 20s and members of a speech therapists’ union, have been awaiting sentencing behind bars for over a yr.

    Therefore, the group might be launched inside 31 days after deductions for time served, one in every of their legal professionals estimated.

    ‘Absurd example of repression’

    Human rights watchdog Amnesty International, which just lately left Hong Kong due to the nationwide safety regulation, known as the convictions “an absurd example of unrelenting repression.”

    Hong Kong was a bastion of free expression inside China and residential to a vibrant and open publishing business.

    Beijing unleashed a full-scale political crackdown on the town three years in the past in response to very large and typically violent pro-democracy protests.

    Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association, was additionally arrested in current days for allegedly refusing to offer identification whereas reporting a information story about housing.

  • Hong Kong police arrest man for booing China anthem throughout Olympics broadcast

    Hong Kong police mentioned on Friday they’d arrested a 40-year-old man for booing China’s nationwide anthem in a shopping center broadcasting dwell town’s first Olympic gold medal win in 25 years earlier this week. More than 100 individuals gathered briefly on Monday evening in a mall to observe on a large display Cheung Ka Long claiming the Olympic males’s particular person fencing title.
    Police mentioned they fielded complaints that some individuals booed through the award ceremony when China’s nationwide anthem was performed.
    Some shouted “We are Hong Kong,” and clapped, in accordance with video clips seen by Reuters.In a press release posted on-line, police mentioned the arrested individual had held a Hong Kong British colonial flag, booed and chanted slogans with others on the time.
    Police mentioned his alleged intention was to “incite hatred and politicize sports”, and that his conduct, taken as a complete, might have insulted the nationwide anthem.

    The man recognized himself as a journalist, police added.
    “The police have launched an investigation into the incident and will collect relevant evidence,” police earlier instructed Reuters.
    Hong Kong handed a regulation in June 2020 that criminalised disrespect of China’s nationwide anthem.

    Anyone discovered responsible of misusing or insulting the anthem may very well be jailed for as much as three years and fined.
    Tensions in Hong Kong in direction of China peaked in 2019 with mass, pro-democracy protests towards Beijing’s tightening grip on town. Beijing later imposed a sweeping nationwide safety regulation that critics say has severely undermined the previous British colony’s autonomy and freedoms, together with the correct to protest.
    Monday’s shopping center broadcast was a uncommon event for Hong Kong individuals to assemble, with teams restricted to a handful of individuals since early 2020 due to the coronavirus.

    Since the regulation took impact, most distinguished pro-democracy politicians and activists have been charged, with some jailed.
    Others have into self-exile.Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say the regulation was very important to revive stability and deny such prosecutions are politically motivated.

  • Hong Kong: 47 dissidents charged with ‘subversion’

    Hong Kong police charged a gaggle of 47 distinguished dissidents with “conspiracy to commit subversion” on Sunday.
    It is the one largest use but of Beijing’s controversial, sweeping nationwide safety regulation towards the town’s democracy motion.
    The 47 charged have been amongst 53 pro-democracy activists arrested by police in January. Those detained within the crackdown had hyperlinks to an unofficial main election organized by pro-democracy events forward of native legislative polls.

    The National Security workplace had ordered a few of these arrested in January to report back to native police stations in Hong Kong at 2 p.m. native time on Sunday.
    They will seem in court docket on Monday morning, the Hong Kong police stated in a press release.
    The defendants embody 39 males and eight ladies aged between 23 and 64, police added.
    Who has been charged with ‘subversion’?
    The charged activists are a broad cross-section of Hong Kong’s opposition.
    They embody veteran former pro-democracy lawmakers reminiscent of James To and Claudia Mo in addition to lecturers, attorneys and social staff.
    Those additionally known as in by Hong Kong police embody a gaggle of youthful “resistance camp” democratic activists together with Lester Shum, Sam Cheung, Ventus Lau and Fergus Leung.
    Some posted on social media earlier than heading to the police station.
    “My chance of bail won’t be too great,” wrote Benny Tai in a publish. He was additionally charged and accused by Chinese authorities of being a key tactician for the pro-democracy motion.
    Gwyneth Ho, a journalist and activist, posted on her Facebook web page earlier than being charged: “I hope everyone can find their road to peace of mind and then press forward with indomitable will.”
    Hong Kong’s National Security Law
    Beijing imposed the laws in June 2020 after swathes of the inhabitants hit the streets in 2019 in enormous and generally violent democracy protests.
    It criminalizes acts deemed to be subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with overseas forces.
    Those charged are routinely denied bail till trial and resist life in jail if convicted.

    The new regulation has drawn worldwide condemnation for jeopardizing Hong Kong’s civil liberties enshrined below the “one country, two systems” framework, together with freedom of speech and meeting.

  • China asks US to cease interfering with Hong-Kong associated points

    In a pointy rebuke, China has requested the United States to cease interfering with its inside affairs and judicial sovereignty on Hong Kong-related points, Chinese state media Xinhua reported.In a press convention, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying mentioned China is a rustic dominated by legislation and anybody who violates it have to be punished.The spokesperson remarks come after US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo reacted on the sentencing of 10 Hong Kongers who’ve been detained in China after they tried to flee to Taiwan.Pompeo lambasted the Chinese Communist Party for the therapy to a gaggle of 12 pro-democracy protestors who tried to flee Taiwan in wake of Beijing’s imposition of the draconian National Security Law, known as for China to instantly launch the ten Hong Kong activists.Out of 12, 10 people have been sentenced from seven months to 3 years in jail by a Shenzhen courtroom on Wednesday. The remaining two are underage passengers and have been handed over to Hong Kong police, as reported by South China Morning Post.“China is a country ruled by law and everyone should comply with the law. Anyone who violates the law must be punished,” Hua mentioned.She mentioned the Chinese judicial authorities deal with circumstances in keeping with legislation and the United States has no proper to intervene, urging the US facet to cease slandering and smearing China.The European Union, Canada and the UK have expressed considerations over the equity of the trial.“Canada expresses deep concern over the secret trial involving the Shenzhen 12. We urge Chinese authorities to conduct trials in accordance with due process and judicial transparency in line with international Human Rights norms and standards,” the Canadian Government’s overseas coverage deal with wrote on Twitter.Meanwhile, London mentioned that the defendants have been “tried in secret” and have been denied entry to attorneys of their selecting.We are deeply involved that members of the Shenzhen 12 have been tried in secret at this time, having been given simply three days’ discover of their trial. Diplomats from Britain and quite a lot of different nations, tried to attend the courtroom proceedings however have been denied entry, mentioned UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in an announcement on Monday.The European Union on Tuesday slammed Beijing for human rights violations towards 10 political activists from Hong Kong who tried to flee to Taiwan, urging authorities to make sure a good trial and known as for a direct launch of the Shenzen 12.