MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2021) The Hong Kong police have arrested four key members of a pro-democracy group behind an annual vigil to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989, media reported on Wednesday.
The four were arrested a day after the organizers vowed to defy a national probe into the alliance, refusing to comply with a police request for information that has "no legal basis," the Hong Kong Free Press news website reported, citing the group.
Chow Hang-tung, the vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, and three committee members � Simon Leung, Sean Tang and Chan To-wai � were arrested early on Wednesday and are being held at separate police stations, according to the report.
The police were cited as confirming the arrests later in the day and adding that further arrests are not being ruled out.
The police sent a request seeking information from the group under provisions of the controversial national security law in late August, as the authorities believed the alliance had been working with foreign agents, which could violate the legislation enacted by Beijing last year.
Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong used to organize an annual vigil to commemorate victims of student protests that broke out in Beijing on April 15, 1989, and culminated on June 4 of that year in violent clashes which claimed over 200 lives. In June 2020, the police banned the vigil for the first time in thirty years in view of protests in Hong Kong over Beijing's plans to adopt new security legislation, while officially citing the need to comply with coronavirus-related restrictions.
The law was adopted later that month in response to massive pro-democracy protests that swept across Hong Kong the previous year. Under the legislation, subversion, secession, or cooperation with foreign forces, and terrorist acts are all prohibited, with each violation carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
