In this file photo taken on October 29, 2019, pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong stands before the media after speaking at a press conference in Hong Kong. Picture: Anthony WALLACE/ AFP
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was apprehended Thursday for “unlawful assembly” and flouting a controversial 2019 anti-mask law that prohibited the wearing of face masks and covers during big public events.
The arrest was announced on Wong’s official Twitter account, which has more than 687,000 followers.
” Joshua was apprehended when reporting to the Central Police Station at 1pm today,” it read, adding that charges were connected to a rally last year on October 5, 2019 – at the height of pro-democracy demonstrations targeted at pushing back versus China’s expanding control over Hong Kong.
He was then launched a few hours later on and required to Twitter to information the formal charges made versus him, calling it a “bizarrely prompt release”.
The 2019 anti-mask law was put in location before the COVID-19 pandemic and has actually been rarely enforced given that.
Rights groups knocked the arrests of Wong and a second pro-democracy activist Koo Sze-yiu. ” Today’s targeting of activists once again highlights the authorities’ intensifying crackdown on crucial voices, which is having a chilling result on the freedom of peaceful assembly in Hong Kong,” Amnesty International stated in an e-mail declaration.
” The arrest of one of Hong Kong’s most popular opposition figures for wearing a face mask at an “unapproved” demonstration– at a time when using a face mask is compulsory in the city– is yet another example of the federal government’s project to silence dissent by any ways.”
Wong, who is no stranger to arrests, formerly told VICE News about his worries of being detained under a new Beijing-backed National Security executed in July.
The act bans all types of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries. It brings an extreme maximum charge of life imprisonment.
The law has already been utilized to justify arrests of dozens of pro-democracy activists, consisting of outspoken Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, and has actually been identified by analysts and observers as a way for the mainland Chinese government to punish dissent in Hong Kong.
Wong also previously spoke up on Twitter against the detention of 12 Hong Kong activists who were getting away by boat to close-by Taiwan to seek political asylum.
He raised his concerns about their welfare and said he feared they would be sent to China’s deceptive court and prison system and rejected access to legal assistance.
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