The police and national security officers have arrested a 71-year-old man in Sheung Shui for alleged sedition.
The man was arrested on Saturday upon suspicion of “prejudicing of investigation of offences endangering national security” and “doing an act that has a seditious intention with a seditious intention,” a police press release said. He has been detained for further enquiries.
The man is accused of disclosing details of a case endangering national security, and of publishing multiple videos with “seditious intention” online, with “content provoking hatred” of the judiciary, as well as local and national governments.
It is the first time an arrest has been made over prejudicing a national security probe.
Those found in violation of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance may face up to seven years in prison upon their first conviction.
Tai Po blaze
At a Saturday press event, a senior national security police officer claimed there were “familiar” scenes around the site of last month’s deadly blaze in Tai Po. He said there were reminders of the 2019 protests and unrest where Hongkongers had gathered to mourn the fire’s 159 victims.
“I’ve been there to observe, and I think the situation was becoming more and more like that of ‘black-clad violence’,” said the chief superintendent of the police’s National Security Department Steve Li, in reference to clothing worn by 2019 pro-democracy demonstrators.
He pointed to pamphlets and slogans that were “basically unrelated to the disaster and only aimed to incite hatred”.
