Seven pro-democracy Hong Kong politicians were yesterday arrested over protests and scuffles that broke out in the Legislative Council (LegCo) earlier this year, the latest prosecutions targeting Beijing’s opponents in the deeply divided territory.
The seven politicians — four of them sitting lawmakers — were arrested on charges of “contempt” and “interfering” with members of the LegCo in early May, police said.
Opposition politicians Wu Chi-wai (胡志偉), Andrew Wan (尹兆堅), Helena Wong (黃碧雲), Kwok Wing-kin (郭永健), Eddie Chu (朱凱迪), Raymond Chan (陳志全) and Fernando Cheung (張超雄) announced their arrests on their Facebook pages.
Photo: AFP
The chamber passes Hong Kong’s laws, but only half of its seats are directly elected and a complex appointment system ensures the territory’s pro-Beijing establishment is all but guaranteed a handsome majority.
Scuffles and protests routinely break out, with the pro-democracy minority often resorting to filibustering, chanting and obstruction to try and halt bills they oppose.
On May 8, confrontations broke out in a committee that decides which bills come up for debate.
The opposition had used months of filibustering to stop the appointment of the committee’s leader. The pro-Beijing camp responded by forcibly installing one of their politicians as the committee chair.
That prompted angry scenes in the chamber with lawmakers from both sides displaying placards amid boisterous heckling and physical obstruction.
Security guards and pro-Beijing lawmakers dragged most of the pro-democracy politicians from the chamber and the installation of the committee chair went ahead.
One pro-Beijing politician was seen on a live broadcast dragging an opponent out by his shirt collar — an incident which has sparked an ongoing private prosecution.
Yesterday’s police action singled out the pro-democracy politicians for arrest and is the latest in a string of prosecutions launched against Beijing critics.
“Some lawmakers dashed toward the security guards surrounding the rostrum and made it impossible for the meeting to go on,” police chief inspector Chan Wing-yu (陳永裕) told reporters.
Asked why only pro-democracy politicians faced prosecution that day for their actions, Chan declined to comment.
The arrested politicians were later released on bail and several of them appeared at a media briefing in the evening.
Wu, chairman of the Democratic Party, said that the charges were “absurd” and were intended to send a “chilling effect to make people more cautious with their words and actions.”
“The allegation of contempt now is trying to criminalize the lawmakers’ expression of criticism,” Wu said.
The inability of Hong Kongers to elect their leaders and lawmakers has been at the heart of swelling opposition to Beijing’s rule, including the huge democracy protests that broke out last year.
More than 10,000 people were arrested and the courts are now filled with trials — many of them involving opposition lawmakers.
In response to the protests, Beijing bypassed the legislature and imposed national security legislation on Hong Kong on June 30.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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