Hong Kong democrats yesterday accused China of jailing one of their members on trumped-up prostitution charges in a bid to disgrace a political movement Beijing has been feuding with for more than seven years.
Alex Ho, 46, a Democratic Party candidate in the city's upcoming legislative elections, was arrested last weekend in southern Dongguan and jailed for six months, party official Fred Li said.
PHOTO: AP
Garment salesman Ho was on a business trip when he was awoken in his hotel room by "public security" officers on Friday morn-ing, Li said.
They dragged Ho from his bed and beat him before planting women's underwear and condoms in his room. Officers then produced a woman they claimed was a prostitute, Li said.
The incident caused panic within the Democratic Party, which has been in a political tussle with China over the pace of democratic reforms since the city moved from British colonial to Chinese rule in 1997.
Li said Ho's detention was politically motivated.
"From the way that the mainland security police handled the case, there are a lot of suspicious points," said Li, a senior party official and fellow candidate.
"There are reasons why I suspect this is politically motivated; it is designed to demoralize the Democratic Party."
Ho's distraught wife was travelling to the southern Chinese city where her husband is being kept "in a hard-labor detention camp," Li said.
"She has absolute faith in her husband and believes he has been unfairly treated. This allegation is completely out of character. We are very disturbed and shocked by this, especially the speed with which he was jailed without trial," he said.
It is expected to make huge gains at the expense of parties sympathetic with the regime in Beijing.
Ho's incarceration would exclude him from contesting the Sept. 12 poll, however, denting the party's chances in a constituency considered crucial by the democrats.
Although a Dongguan public security bureau official said the case was being looked into, the Dongguan City Government said it was not aware of the incident.
Hong Kong's government said it had taken up the case, however, and would follow it "actively."
"We will talk to Mr Ho's wife before we contact the relevant security bureau -- they have not contacted us," said Hong Kong Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee (
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a monument to China’s contributions to the interoceanic waterway was torn down on Saturday night by order of local authorities. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has made threats in the past few months to retake control of the canal, claiming Beijing has too much influence in its operations. In a surprising move that has been criticized by leaders in Panama and China, the mayor’s office of the locality of Arraijan ordered the demolition of the monument built in 2004 to symbolize friendship between the countries. The mayor’s office said in
‘TRUMP’S LONG GAME’: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that while fraud was a serious issue, the US president was politicizing it to defund programs for Minnesotans US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday said it was auditing immigration cases involving US citizens of Somalian origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship, while also announcing a freeze of childcare funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some daycare centers. “Under US law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. About 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017, the Immigrant Legal Resource
‘RADICALLY DIFFERENT’: The Kremlin said no accord would be reached if the new deal with Kyiv’s input did not remain within the limits fixed by the US and Russia in August Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend, but Russia on Friday accused him and his EU backers of seeking to “torpedo” a US-brokered plan to stop the fighting. Today’s meeting to discuss new peace proposals comes amidst Trump’s intensified efforts to broker an agreement on Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. The latest plan is a 20-point proposal that would freeze the war on its current front line, but open the door for Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, where demilitarized buffer zones could be created, according to details revealed by
RSS