Activist Jailed for Unlawful Assembly

Commuters were attacked by men in white shirts July 21, 2019

Many Hongkongers will forever remember the Yuen Long attacks on the evening of July 21, 2019, when some 100 men in white shirts with sticks and rods beat people in the MTR station, not only on the concourse but in the train carriage as well.

It was such a shocking incident that people watched the events unfold live, and one journalist, Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam filmed herself being assaulted by a middle-aged man. Forty-five people were injured, including lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting.

Attackers went into MTR trains to assault people

Only seven people were convicted and sentenced for the assaults.

A week after the horrific incident, activist Max Chung Kin-ping organised a "Reclaim Yuen Long" march on July 27, 2019.

However, the police filed a Letter of Objection, saying the protest may cause traffic disruptions. 

While Chung suggested he would march alone, and urged people not to follow him, some 288,000 people showed up that day to show support for the district, and by 5pm the police started firing tear gas at the protesters.

Today Chung was jailed for 16 months after he pleaded guilty to organising an unauthorised assembly.

District Judge Amanda Woodcock described the atmosphere in Yuen Long in the days after the mob attack as a "tinderbox situation", and the banned demonstration was a potential source of violence.

Chung pleaded guilty to unauthorised assembly

She did not believe Chung did not see emotions were running high and that violence could have erupted easily.

Woodcock noted the defendant used "provocative and inflammatory" language and "covertly" asked people to participate in the unauthorised procession.

"[Chung] made a conscious decision to break the law... actions have consequences for everyone...," she said.

In addition Woodcock disagreed with the defence's argument that the court should not blame him for violent acts that took place adjacent to the demonstration route he proposed.

The court also dismissed the defendant's plea that it was "unfair" for Chung to be prosecuted more than two years after the demonstration took place. The prosecution said it had taken time to look into a high volume of evidence, and Woodcock said relevant parties faced a heavy workload.

"Two years was not a very long time... there was no intentional delay. More importantly, I see no prejudice...," the judge said.

Some 288,000 came to Yuen Long on July 27, 2019

Chung was originally sentenced to 24 months in prison, which was then reduced to 16 months for submitting a guilty plea. 

He was arrested the day of the protest but he was not charged. Chung was later apprehended last August and remanded in custody since. 

Stand News Stands Down

Media covering arrest of Stand News editor Patrick Lam

Yesterday Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and six former senior editors and executives were slapped with another charge of allegedly promoting seditious material. 

Early this morning news broke that the national security police arrested seven people related to independent online news outlet Stand News, including former and current editors, former opposition lawmaker Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, musician and activist Denise Ho Wan-sze, and Christine Fang Meng-sang, cousin of former chief secretary Anson Chan Fong On-sang.

Denise Ho was also arrested this morning

Police also froze HK$61 million (US$7.8 million) of Stand News' assets, making it the second news outlet to be accused of breaching the national security law.

Ronson Chan Ron-sing, Stand News deputy assignment editor and chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was also taken from his home in Tai Wai for questioning but was not placed under arrest.

Coincidentally, Chan was at the association's annual dinner two nights ago, in which he deplored the rapid deterioration of press freedom in Hong Kong.

In part he said this:

"When the Excom was elected last June, we made a solemn promise to our colleagues and the society. We know that it is a turbulent time, but freedom of the press is one of the pillars of Hong Kong's success. Since its establishment in 1968, HKJA has attached importance to its social responsibility as much as to the needs of our colleagues. Hong Kong needs both truth and reporters. No matter how difficult the road is ahead, HKJA will do our utmost to continue to stand high and shoulder to shoulder. In the face of an uncertain future, we have no other request from our friends and partners other than your encouragement. Our humble wish is to continue to receive words of encouragement even if they may be soft and low."

Chan speaks to reporters after his release

By this afternoon Stand News was shut down, its employees all laid off. By 11pm tonight the website was shut down as well as its social media like Twitter accounts.

More than 200 police officers were involved in Wednesday's crackdown, raiding the Stand News office in Kwun Tong with a warrant, and took away 33 boxes of evidence, including computers and journalistic material, and also searching the homes of some of the accused.

At a press conference today, Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu justified the arrests of the seven which led to Stand News' demise.

"Anybody who attempts to make use of media work as a tool to pursue their political purpose or other interests [and] contravenes the law, particularly offences that endanger national security, they are the evil elements that damage press freedom," Lee said.

Barrister Margaret Ng was arrested by police

"Professional media workers should recognise that these are the bad apples who are abusing their position simply by wearing a false coat of media worker and then, using that position, abuse news as a tool, to pursue their own purposes. They will pollute press freedom. Professional media workers should recognise this, say no to these people and stand far from them."

Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah, of the police force's National Security Department, said they froze Stand News' assets as they questioned where the money came from as the news outlet did not accept sponsors or receive many advertising fees. 

The police also questioned how Stand News could have the money to open a bureau in the UK and if a conspiracy had occurred. 

Stand News was founded on December 29, 2014 and shut down almost seven days later to the day on December 27, 2021.

It became known for its on-the-ground reporting, particularly during the 2019 protests and was a go-to source for news for opposition-leaning readers. Its reporters also did investigative stories, including the latest one on two senior immigration officials allegedly receiving gift hampers from embattled developer China Evergrande.

Screenshot from Ho's live stream of Yuen Long

By law civil servants are not allowed to receive gifts worth more than HK$3,000, but these hampers were priced at HK$3,388. One of the officials surmised that the hampers were bought during an early-bird special so they actually cost under HK$3,000...

During the 2019 protests, it drew 3.8 million viewers when its then reporter Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam, live streamed the attacks in the Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019, and she herself was attacked by the white-clad men with rods. Her video was a chilling record of what happened that night.

But Stand News is no more. 

There are fewer places for Hongkongers to get their news. If anything the mainlandisation of Hong Kong continues to steamroll on, making press freedom in the city even more fragile by the day.

Jimmy Lai and 7 Others Jailed for Banned Tiananmen Vigil

The unauthorised gathering on June 4, 2020 in Victoria Park

Today Apple Daily founder and chairman Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and seven others were sentenced from 4.5 months to 14 months for their roles in last year's banned Tiananmen candlelight vigil.

District Judge Amanda Woodcock called for stiff sentences as the defendants defied a police ban and the law, and did not seem to care about the pandemic when gathering for an unauthorised assembly.

People were told to commemorate their own way

She also dismissed suggestions the strict social-distancing measures were tools of political repression meant to prevent people from gathering, saying they were in place to protect the community.

"So to defy and incite others to defy those restrictions under these circumstances is serious," Woodcock said. "The defendants wrongly and arrogantly believed their right to commemorate was more important than a serious health risk."

The Judge said instead of gathering in football pitches, the organisers should have held an interactive online vigil.

Lai was handed a 13-month sentence, which will run concurrently with a 20-month sentence he is currently serving for three other unauthorised assemblies.

Lai (left) at the unauthorised assembly

Barrister Chow Hang-tung, formerly a vice-chairwoman of the alliance, was jailed for a year after she was found guilty of incitement and participation, while activist Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam received six months after being convicted of the latter charge in the same trial.

Lee Cheuk-yan, the alliance's ex-chairman, who is already serving a 20-month sentence for unauthorised assemblies, was handed a 14-month sentence to be served concurrently.

Other committee members of the alliance -- Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong, Leung Yiu-chung, and Simon Leung Kam-wai were jailed for between nine and 12 months for incitement and participation.

Ex-chairman of the Democratic Party and former lawmaker Wu Chi-wai, who is serving a 10-month sentence over another unauthorised assembly and is also being remanded on a national security law case, saw his prison term extended by four months and two weeks for participation.

The seven were the last group of a total of 24 opposition activists and former politicians arraigned over the annual commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown that was banned after 30 years, citing pandemic social-distancing measures.

Chow was jailed for 12 months today

During his mitigation, Lai's defense counsel, Robert Pang Yiu-hung SC read out his client's handwritten letter. It said in whole:

"I did not join the June 4th vigil in Victoria Park. I lit a candle light in front of reporters to remind the world to remember and commemorate those young men and women, who 31 years ago in Tiananmen Square, put truth, just and goodness above their lives and died for them.

If commemorate those who died because of injustice is a crime, then inflict on me that crime and let me stuffer the punishment of the crime, so I may share the burden and glory of those young men and women who shed their blood on June 4th to proclaim truth, justice and goodness.

Lord, remember those who shed their blood, but do not remember their cruelty. Remember the fruits of those young men and women have borne, because of what they did. And grant, Lord, that the fruits of these young men and women have borne may be their redemption. May the power of love of the meek prevail over the power of destruction of the strong."

Lai's handwritten statement

Meanwhile Chow, who had discharged her defence team, read out her own statement for the record.

"Let us not delude ourselves that this is all about Covid-19," Chow said from the dock. "While the court sees fit to take judicial notice of the situation of a health crisis, it acts as if the parallel political crisis does not exist... It refuses to see the wider context under which this case happened, in the name of focusing only on relevant and admissible evidence.

"In closing its eyes to the obvious, the court risks making itself irrelevant to the ailments of our times," she continued. "In purporting to maintain political neutrality, the court is in effect affirming the unequal power wielded by the government in instituting political charges against its opponents, emboldening the authorities to take ever more restrictive action that squeezes out the rights of the citizens.

"The sentence on me, however legally sound, will be seen by Hongkongers and the world as a sentence on every Hongkonger in Victoria Park on June 4, 2020."

Alliance Members Arrested and Other News

The alliance organized the annual June 4 vigil for 30 years

Action was swift. 

The day after the group that organized the annual Tiananmen Square candlelight vigils again refused to comply to the national security police's request for information about donors and its operations, the authorities this morning arrested four core members, including Chow Hang-tung.

Chow was arrested this morning at her office

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China said Chow was detained along with Leung Kam-wai, Tang Ngok-kwan and Chan To-wai. A police source said the national security department was also looking for a fifth person but could not find him at his home in Tsuen Wan.

Chow was arrested in her office at around 8am. She was there early as she was preparing to represent Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam in a bail hearing. Ho was one of the 47 people arrested in another national security investigation into the primary election held last July.

"Some people have been ringing the doorbell and attempting to break the door code," said Chow, the alliance vice-chairwoman in a live video she posted on her Facebook page.

Chow's family later said she was handcuffed and taken to her home where the police searched the premises. 

A spokesman for the Security Bureau said in a statement: "Ignoring warnings given, the organization concerned resolutely insisted on refusing to comply with the police force's requirement to provide information... Hence, police had to take action."

The national security police allege the alliance colluded with foreign forces. 

Ho withdrew her bail application today

As Chow was unable to represent Ho now that she was detained, another defense counsel stepped in in Ho's case.

A former journalist, Ho withdrew her bail application during her hearing after the court refused to lift reporting restrictions. 

She had wanted to challenge the statutory restrictions imposed on reports of bail applications, which bar the publication of bail negotiations heard in open court.

Currently the law only allows six types of information to be published in media reports on bail proceedings, including the defendant's name, the alleged offence and the application's result.

During today's hearing, Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping of the High Court refused to lift the restrictions after hearing brief arguments. As a result, Ho withdrew her bail application and was returned to custody.

And in other depressing news, I did not win the HK$10.8 million (US$1.4 million) flat in Kwun Tong, nor did I win HK$100,000 in credit either, as the winners were drawn today.

The winner of the flat was born in Hong Kong between January 1980 and December 1988 according to the first letter of the HKID card, so someone from around 33 to 41 years old.

A Hongkonger won a HK$10.8M flat today

The lucky draw was a bid to encourage people to get vaccinated, only 48.7 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, and the number of people getting their first jab has dwindled to about 15,400 people on Monday, compared to 30,000 in mid-August.

A second HK$12 million flat in Kwun Tong will be up for grabs if 5 million people get at least one jab by the end of September. Hong Kong is currently at 4.27 million people with at least one dose.

At this rate it will be a miracle to reach 5 million...

Fallout Two Years After 7.21

Commuters in Yuen Long station were attacked two years ago

 

It's hard to believe it's been two years since the horrific attacks on commuters in Yuen Long by men in white T-shirts armed with long wooden sticks and metal rods. What has happened since then?

Last month five people were convicted in the attacks and will be sentenced tomorrow, another man was acquitted on the lack of evidence. That is only a tiny fraction of the people involved in the incident that left 45 people injured and shocked Hongkongers who watched it unfold in real time.

Ho livestreamed the attack, was later arrested

The brave journalist Gwyneth Ho of Stand News who kept live streaming the incident as she was being attacked became a politician in the hopes of running in the Legislative Council elections in 2019 that were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

But in January she was arrested along with 52 others for organizing and participating in the pro-democracy primaries last July. Ho was released on bail.

Another now former pro-democracy lawmaker, Lam Cheuk-ting, who rushed to the scene and was injured himself, was arrested for the same charge.

Lam was also arrested earlier this year

RTHK did an extensive investigation into the Yuen Long attacks, but one of its producers, Bao Choy Yuk-ling, was arrested and convicted for "submitting misinformation" when she requested ownership information of some of the vehicles used by the white-shirted men.  

While she was fined HK$6,000 for two violations of the Road Traffic Ordinance, Choy is appealing the decision because she feels she has done nothing wrong.

The RTHK documentary, 7.21: Who Owns the Truth? won a human rights prize and journalism nods, but public broadcaster refused to accept the awards and even tried to withdraw the application beforehand.

Choy does not believe she did anything wrong

But on that same evening in Western district, another attack was happening at the liaison office. Protesters defaced the Chinese emblem with black paint and it was then that state media began reporting on the anti-government protests and described the participants as rioters.

This incident may have set in motion the beginning of plans to implement the national security law less than a year later.

Now two years later, after Apple Daily shut down, laid off its staff and turned off the lights, the former executive editor was taken away by police, along with three others who reported to police following their bail conditions. They are expected to be charged under the national security law.

Lam Man-chung was arrested today

Eight in total have been have been arrested since last month, including two editorial writers, while Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested last year for violating the national security law.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was shocked and puzzled by the latest arrest, describing freedom of the press as the "cornerstone of an international city".

"The association urges the government not to keep arresting journalists in the name of national security in a bid to create white terror in the field," it said.

What will happen a year from now?