The Hong Kong police on Tuesday arrested eight more pro-democracy legislators over their role in an unauthorized protest last summer.
According to media reports, while the police have only said that the arrested people were of age between 24 and 64, local media has said that former pro-democracy legislators and veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung, known as Long Hair, was among them.
Meanwhile, a Twitter post of former legislator Eddie Chu said he too had been arrested.
“Chu Hoi Dick was arrested and searched by the police at 0640am this morning,” the post read. “He was charged with two crimes related to July 1st: holding or organizing an unauthorized assembly, and knowingly participating in an unauthorized assembly,” the post added.
The arrests came less than a week after police sentenced three of Hong Kong’s most prominent young pro-democracy activists – Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam – to prison terms.
The Hong Kong police on Tuesday had arrested eight people including two district councillors in connection with a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration last month on the Chinese University campus. Among those arrested was graduate and community organiser Arthur Yeung. Yeung was taken into custody by police at 7 am (local time), according to a post on his Facebook page.
Pro-Beijing administration in recent times has launched a crackdown against pro-democracy activists and politicians, and have arrested several people since the passing of security law, which is deemed as draconian by people of Hong Kong and countries like the United States.
Around 100 students held a protest march during their graduation day on November 19 after their ceremony was cancelled owing to COVID-19 social distancing rules.
They displayed flags that read “Hong Kong, the only way out” and “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times,” sprayed graffiti of the slogans and sang the protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong. They marched peacefully from the local train station to the “Million Boulevard” walkway.
Around 40 officers from Hong Kong’s national security police department entered the campus to investigate after some of the slogans were deemed to be pro-independence.