Hongkong
Hong Kong has been downgraded to a “watch list” over its response to human trafficking, with the US government saying that security laws enacted in the city in 2020 and in March had restricted the ability of NGOs to engage with officials to combat trafficking. The “2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Hong Kong,” which was released by the US Department of State on Monday, prompted swift objections from the city’s government in a lengthy statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday. “We vehemently oppose and firmly reject the unfounded and false remarks in the Report against the situation in H...
Hong Kong Free Press
Former Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai, a key figure in a landmark national security case involving 47 democrats, should receive a two-year jail sentence for taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion, his lawyer has argued as the mitigation hearings of those who pleaded guilty or were convicted began. The former University of Hong Kong (HKU) professor had an “honest but mistaken” belief that his plan of securing majority control in the legislature was legal, Senior Counsel Stewart Wong told a panel of three handpicked national security judges on Tuesday. At the centre of the case is a...
Hong Kong Free Press
A 29-year-old man has been charged with three counts of sedition under Hong Kong’s new security law over graffiti left on the back of bus seats. The man was arrested in Tseung Kwan O by police officers from the national security department on Sunday for “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,” according to a police statement on Tuesday. He also faces two counts of “destroying or damaging property.” Police said he was suspected of “writing words with seditious intention on multiple occasions on the back of bus seats on different public buses in March and...
Hong Kong Free Press
Photojournalists stationed outside Hong Kong’s top court were made to stand across the road in police-approved areas on Monday, when the court heard an appeal from seven high-profile pro-democracy figures. Three media zones were set up early Monday morning outside of the Court of Final Appeal, when judges heard the appeal of seven prominent democrats against their conviction over knowingly taking part in an unauthorised assembly on August 18, 2019, at the height of the protest and unrests. Of the seven, four are currently in detention. Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan were taken to court in Correct...
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong protester convicted of inciting secession has filed the city’s first legal challenge against a new security law that saw his scheduled early release from prison axed on national security grounds. Ma Chun-man, who is serving a five-year sentence in jail, claimed the Commissioner of Correctional Services’ decision to revoke his early release was retrospective and a violation of his rights and of procedural fairness. He asked the High Court to order his immediate release. The commissioner’s decision came days after the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known locally as Article...
Hong Kong Free Press
Political reform to realise direct election is not a priority for Hong Kong, Chief Executive John Lee has said as he prepares to mark his second anniversary in office. Lee was asked whether he planned to deal with political reform over the next three years of his term as leader during a weekly press briefing on Tuesday. Before assuming the role on July 1, 2022, Lee said that May he would prioritise tackling housing issues and push forward the legislation of Article 23 – the city’s homegrown security law – during his tenure as chief executive. He added then that political reform was not his pri...
Hong Kong Free Press
The upcoming anniversary of Hong Kong’s Handover to China will be “filled with joy,” Chief Executive John Lee has said. Addressing reporters at a weekly press briefing on Tuesday, Lee said the 27th Handover anniversary next Monday would be “warmly celebrated” by Hongkongers. “I strongly believe that the day will be filled with joy because we have many different measures to help people celebrate,” Lee said in Cantonese. Earlier this month, Lee announced a raft of free and discounted activities that will be available on July 1, including complimentary tram and light rail travel and entry to exhi...
Hong Kong Free Press
Safeguarding national security is the most important value for Hong Kong’s 175,000 civil servants and the framework guiding their work, the Secretary for Civil Service Ingrid Yeung has said. Yeung’s remarks came after the government introduced a new version of civil service code in early June, adding six new core values that civil servants must uphold, including “upholding the constitutional order and national security” in first position. Yeung said in an interview with government-backed broadcaster RTHK on Monday that while all 12 core values matter, the first was the most important one. “As ...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong courts must ensure that a conviction is “proportionate” to the protection of fundamental rights, lawyers representing seven veteran democrats have argued at the city’s top court in an appeal against convictions linked to an unauthorised demonstration in 2019. The Court of Final Appeal (CFA) on Monday heard an appeal from prominent pro-democracy figures Martin Lee, Margaret Ng, Jimmy Lai, Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho, who were found guilty of organising and knowingly taking part in an unauthorised assembly on August 18, 2019. On that day, organisers...
Hong Kong Free Press
The leader of Hong Kong radical group “Dragon Slayers” received deposits of at least HK$1.2 million into his bank accounts during the 2019 protests and unrest despite only earning about HK$56,000 in the previous two years combined, a court has heard. The High Court on Monday heard evidence from expert witness Lee Tang-yiu, a police forensic accountant, as the city’s first-ever trial under an UN anti-terrorism act entered its 39th day. Seven people are standing trial in front of a jury over an alleged bomb plot targeting police officers during a lawful rally in December 2019. Six face a charge ...
Hong Kong Free Press
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