Hong Kong’s two lawmakers of the opposite side, along with 14 other people arrested because of anti-government protests of 2019.
On the morning of 26th August 2020, the Democratic Party members, Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting announced their house arrest on their social media handles.
On 21st July 2020, in a subway station, 100+ men in white attacked several passengers and protesters with rattan cans and steel rods. Several protesters and people from opposition camps accused the police, too, for conspiring with the attackers and arriving late at the crime scene. Also, the police did not arrest anyone that night, and thus they are at pinpoint too.
Wu Chi-wai, Democratic Party’s chairman in Hong Kong, considered the charges and arrested ridiculous, and another lawmaker James stated that the arrests arise due to political beliefs and oppression.
The men arrested were 26 to 48 years old during 2019’s protests, as stated by a police officer on anonymity conditions.
The protests continued for several months in the semi-autonomous city of Chinese people, Hong Kong. Later, after all that, the government announced passing a bill allowing all the criminal suspects of the town to be sent to their native mainland for the trials. The bill was then considered a violation of the freedom of the former colony of the British. Hence, violence between the protesters and the police, and the rallies continued further too.
Since June 2019, after the protests started, the police of Hong Kong made 9,000+ arrests. Several pro-democracy figures were arrested, including Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, the activists, and Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon.
Reasons for the arrests of Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting
Posts on Hui’s Facebook page have not made anything explicit about the exact charges imposed on him.
On the other hand, Twitter posts on Lam Cheuk-ting’s account stated that the charges imposed on him are of conspiration with others to damaging the properties and destructing justice during July 2019’s protests. It is also mentioned on the posts that he has been accused of 21st July 2019 riots.
On 21st July 2019, during the violent attacks at Yeun Long’s train station, some victims captured both of these pro-democracy lawmakers on their mobile phones. On the footage, several men dressed in white shirts were beating the passengers and protesters.
However, anger on these arrests and people stated that they know that these lawmakers were protecting the citizens that day and not harassing them.