Hong Kong: a human rights activist arrested before a demonstration against the Beijing Olympics
It was the national security police, a new political police created by the national security law in June 2020, who arrested him on Friday February 4 for incitement to subversion, before six a.m. in Hong Kong.
Bertha WANG AFP/File
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
A 75-year-old pro-democracy activist was arrested this Friday morning, February 4, in Hong Kong, at his home for "
incitement to subversion
" a few hours before a demonstration he had called for against the holding of the Olympic Games in Beijing. .
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With our correspondent in Hong Kong,
Florence de Changy
Koo Sze-yiu is a veteran activist in Hong Kong.
He is now 75 years old and has terminal cancer.
He was a devotee of the Tiananmen remembrance evenings and the usual protest parades, in particular those of July 1, often an accomplice deputy nicknamed "Long Hair", who has already been in prison for almost a year.
It was the national security police, a new political police created by the
national security law
in June 2020, who arrested him on Friday February 4 for incitement to subversion, before six in the morning at his home.
Four other people were arrested without being formally remanded in custody.
Call to protest
The real reason for this arrest seems to be Koo Sze-yiu's intention to demonstrate this Friday morning in front of the Beijing Liaison Office, the official representation of the Chinese central government in Hong Kong.
In his invitation to the media, he mentioned "
many political activists and citizens of Hong Kong thrown in prison, deprived of spending the Lunar New Year with their families because of abuses of Hong Kong's national security law
".
And added: "
The central government is only concerned with the organization of the Winter Olympics and does not care about the miscarriages of justice committed in Hong Kong
", it reads.
It remains to be seen whether these are the words that the Hong Kong police consider "
incitement to subversion
".
►Also read: Hong Kong: lawyer Chow Hang-tung sentenced to 15 months in prison for a vigil for Tiananmen
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