Strength of Cases Against Arrested Hong Kong Democrats Uncertain
Posted by John Chan | Jan 7, 2021
On the eve of the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, Chief Executive Carrie Lam addressed the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council: “[The law] will only target an extremely small minority of people.” Just over six months later, 93 people have been arrested under the new legislation, corresponding to an average of one arrest every two days.
The majority of those arrests came on January 6, when every candidate who ran in the 2020 pan-democratic camp primary election and five organizers were arrested for “subversion.” National security police accused the candidates of plotting to win a majority in order to paralyze the legislature, and ultimately force the Chief Executive to resign, a plan that is laid out and permitted in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.