5 February 2021, 18:19 UTC
Responding to Hong Kong’s Education Bureau (EDB) announcing its new guidelines and curriculum in relation to safeguarding national security, Amnesty international Hong Kong’s Programme Manager Lam Cho Ming said:
“The new measures on school management and national security education, including the establishment of taskforces to monitor student behaviour and activities, would significantly curb freedom of expression on campus in Hong Kong.
“Banning expression of political opinion on campus is not a national security issue; it is a sweeping restriction and a blatant human rights violation. National security must not be used to deny students the right to express different political views.
Hong Kong: 10 Defendants Face Trial Over Attempt To Flee Country - The News Lens International Edition thenewslens.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenewslens.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Diplomats denied courtroom access
The passengers feared they would be prosecuted for their activism in support of democratic opposition in Hong Kong under new national security laws.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed calls from the US Embassy for the 12 to be released as interference in China’s “judicial sovereignty.”
The US Embassy said it had requested permission to observe the hearing, but that the request was denied.
“Their so-called ‘crime’ was to flee tyranny,” the embassy statement said. “Communist China will stop at nothing to prevent its people from seeking freedom elsewhere.”
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was deeply concerned that the group had been tried in secret with just three day’s notice, and that British diplomats had been denied entry to the courtroom.
The trials of 10 people from Hong Kong detained at sea while allegedly en route to Taiwan got underway in mainland China, a court official said on Monday, as campaigners urged fair hearings and the United States called for the group’s “immediate release”.
The defendants are part of a group of 12 who were intercepted by the Chinese coastguard on August 23 and have been held virtually incommunicado in a mainland prison since.
They face charges of illegal border crossing and organising an illicit border crossing, which could carry a sentence of up to seven years in jail.
Their case has attracted great interest as a rare instance of mainland authorities detaining people trying to leave semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where democracy activists last year led enormous protests against Beijing’s rule.
Trials begin for 10 charged in Hong Kong flight case myplainview.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from myplainview.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.