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Two leading Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, were arrested on Friday, just hours after independence activist Andy Chan was detained at the city’s airport, ahead of a major demonstration scheduled on Saturday.
Demosisto Party reported on social media that Wong, the organisation’s secretary-general, and Chow, a senior member, were arrested separately and taken to the Wan Chai police headquarters.
The South China Morning Post reported that Wong and Chow are being charged for “unlawful assembly”.
Wong was walking to a train station on Friday morning (2330 GMT Tuesday), when he was “forcefully pushed into a private minivan”, Demosisto said. Two hours later, Chow was also arrested.
Meanwhile, Chan was reportedly detained “on suspicion of rioting and assaulting a police officer”, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.
Chan, the leader of the banned pro-independence Hong Kong National Party, was detained as he was about to board a flight to Japan late on Thursday, the publication added.
Wong, 22, was one of the leaders of the so-called Umbrella Movement that brought Hong Kong to a standstill for more than two months in late 2014.
BREAKING: Our secretary-general @joshuawongcf was just arrested this morning at roughly 7:30, when he was walking to the South Horizons MTR station. He was forcefully pushed into a private minivan on the street in broad daylight. Our lawyers following the case now.
— Demosistō 香港眾志 (@demosisto) August 30, 2019
Wong had called for the Hong Kong government to scrap the extradition bill legislation, which ignited the ongoing protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
Chow, is also a prominent activist, who had sought to become Hong Kong’s youngest council member. She was disqualified after the government said her party’s political platform violated the city’s electoral laws.
The arrests and detention come as a political crisis in the city continues, with another major rally expected on Saturday.
Saturday marks the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s rejection of a call for universal suffrage in the city, a decision that sparked the 79-day Umbrella Movement led by mainly young protesters including Wong.
Permission for a mass rally this weekend was denied on security grounds, raising the likelihood of another weekend of clashes between police and protesters, who will likely come out in defiance of the ban.
In a letter to the rally organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), police said they feared some participants would commit “violent and destructive acts”.
The ongoing protests against the city’s Beijing-backed government have since evolved into a wider call for greater democracy and an investigation into allegations of police brutality.
Protesters say freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, unique within China, are being eroded by Beijing.
More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the recent protests since June.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
