Police Hong Kong arresting family Fuggonige Dissident

The police in Hong Kong have arrested the father and brother of the well -known fugitive activist Anna Kwok. It is the first time that the authorities use a local safety law to tackle family members of a dissident.

Anna Kwok (28) was involved in large -scale protests against the growing Chinese repression in the former British crown colony in 2014 and 2019. She now lives in the United States, where she leads the Hong Kong Democracy Council, a Prodemocratic NGO in Washington.

Together with seven other activists in exile, Kwok became in 2023 placed on an investigation list. The authorities praise 1 million Hong Kong dollar (converted around 114,000 euros) for her arrest. Hong Kong moved in her passport in December. There are now nineteen dissidents on the investigation list staying abroad.

According to a Friday published press release From the Hong Kong police, Kwok’s father (68) and brother (35) were arrested on Wednesday because they are suspected of having managed the finances of ‘a fugitive’, which is punishable according to a controversial local security law which came into force last year.

Safety law

It is the first time that this law has been used against relatives of activists, but the arrest fits in a trend of increasing transnational repression by the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities. Last month the parents of another fugitive activist, Frances Hui, were interviewed by the police.

On Friday, Kwok’s father was sued and brought before the court. According to the indictment, which was viewed by Reuters news agency, Kwok’s father would have dealt with insurance affairs for his daughter. The police warns in the press release that prison sentences are up to seven years on the facts that Kwok’s father is suspected. Kwok’s brother was released on bail.

The former British crown colony Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997 on the promise that independent case law and civil freedoms in the city state would remain for at least fifty years – the principle of ‘one country, two systems’. But especially after the entry into force of the Beijing imposed National Security Act in 2020, and an additional local safety law Last year, those rights were quickly crumbled. Heavy penalties have been set in legislation on vague offenses such as ‘separatism’, ‘riot’ and ‘conspiracy’.

Great public protests have since been impossible, hundreds of activists, democratic representatives, lawyers and journalists have been arrested and sued.

Freedom

In the published this Friday annual ranking freedom of the NGO Reporters Without Borders Hong Kong Five places has dropped, to place 140. It ended up for the first time just like China in the lowest category, of countries where it is « very serious » with the freedom of the press. In 2014, Hong Kong was still in 61 place. In the ranking of 2022 it already made a free fall of 68 places after the introduction of the National Security Act.

The new decrease is, among other things, the result of the convictionin September last year, of two former editors of an independent news site news site. They would have been guilty of ‘incitement’ because Stand News reported on massive ProDemocratic protests in 2019.

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