new arrest of pro-democracy leader on Tiananmen anniversary

A figure of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, Chow Hang-tung, was arrested on Friday, June 4 in the morning, on the eve of the anniversary of the events in Tiananmen, the commemoration of which is prohibited by the authorities.

Four people introduced themselves as plainclothes police in front of Chow Hang-tung, in front of his office building in the city center, and said they were proceeding to his arrest, an Agence France journalist found. -Press (AFP). She was placed in a black sedan and taken away. A police source told AFP that Chow Hang-tung was arrested under section 17A of the Public Order Ordinance.

The 37-year-old lawyer is one of the vice-presidents of the Hong Kong Alliance, which holds a grand vigil with candles in Victoria Park every June 4, in remembrance of the victims of the Beijing Tiananmen Square crackdown, June 4, 1989.

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This vigil was banned for the second year in a row by police in Hong Kong, authorities citing restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, even though the city has not recorded any cases of local contamination in more than a month .

Arrest of “Mamie Wong”

After this ban, the Hong Kong Alliance announced that it would not organize the vigil. Mme Chow, on the other hand, had indicated to the press that she planned to go to Victoria Park on Friday evening in a personal capacity.

This arrest is reminiscent of that which took place on Sunday, May 30, when the Hong Kong police arrested “Mamie Wong”, a sexagenarian known for her commitment to pro-democracy, while she alone commemorated the repression of Tiananmen.

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The 2020 commemoration was also banned by the authorities due to the pandemic. Tens of thousands of people had nevertheless defied this ban and legal proceedings had been initiated against twenty-four personalities of the pro-democracy movement.

The World with AFP