On April 24, 2019, a court in Hong Kong handed down jail terms to four pro-democracy activists accused of “inciting” the 2014 Occupy Central movement, after finding them guilty of public order charges. Movement co-founders Benny Tai and Chan Kin-man were both sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment by the West Kowloon District Court for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” while fellow movement leader Chu Yiu-ming, 75, and Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan were given suspended prison terms owing to poor health. The charges were based on comments made to the media, and on a 2013 press conference given by Chan Kin-man, Benny Tai and Chu Yiu-ming calling on people to occupy the Central business district in a peaceful civil disobedience
Tai said Hong Kong, which was promised the continuation of its traditional freedoms of speech, publication, and association under the terms of the 1997 handover to China, is now looking at a political system that is closer to that of Singapore
Pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok addresses he media after the Hong Kong judiciary reassigned Eastern Court magistrate Stanley Ho, despite throwing out a complaint against him regarding his handling of protest-related cases, in the Chinese city
Hong Kong police made at least 87 arrests on Oct. 1, as thousands of protesters took to the streets in defiance of a police ban on a protest march in support of 12 activists detained by the China Coast Guard as they tried to flee to democratic Taiwan. Among the arrestees was a man who was surrounded by riot police as he was smoking a cigarette on the street. In an incident filmed by the media, the man was later shoved to the ground, his glasses flying off his face. The man, who gave only the nickname Kelvin, spoke to RFA’s Cantonese Service about his experiences in police custody
Education secretary Kevin Yeung told journalists that the teacher had designed his own teaching materials for two classes last March dealing with the topic of independence for the city — a topic banned by Beijing — and the banned pro-independence Hong Kong National Party
An ongoing investigation into a hard-hitting journalist with Hong Kong’s government broadcaster RTHK will have a “chilling effect” on the city’s news organizations, the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA)
The statement came after the police wrote to four media associations warning them that press accreditation issued by the HKJA and the Hong Kong Press Photographers’ Association would no longer be recognized by the police when deciding who is to be allowed to cover an event.
Cheng Tsz-Ho, 18, is among 12 Hongkongers aged 16 to 33 being held on suspicion of “illegal immigration” at the Yantian Detention Center in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong
Germany’s top diplomat urged China to allow a UN mission to investigate the internment camps holding Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and called for the withdrawal of the national security law in Hong Kong that has led to the arrests of top pro-democracy figures, German media reported
In March, an annual report by the U.S. State Department cited reports from Amnesty International and other sources as saying that police had beaten and mistreated individuals in custody, with several reports emerging of sexual assault in detention