The Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times has strongly condemned the Hong Kong police for making indiscriminate arrests at the site of protests amid Beijing’s implementation of a new national security law.
On July 1, while thousands of protesters marched onto the streets in defiance of a police ban to oppose the new law, four Epoch Times distribution personnel were among a group of people who were cordoned by police and arrested.
The local Epoch Times bureau called for the unconditional release of all four arrested staff members.
The four, Chen Xiaojuan, Zhang Yan, Qiu Xiuzhu, and Wang Jinxiang, have since been released on bail.
The four were distributing Epoch Times promotional material near Victoria Park in Causeway Bay district on Wednesday afternoon, as protesters gathered to march onto the streets, when they were arrested between 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
They were detained overnight at the North Point Police Station.
The police released them on bail at various times on Thursday. Their phones have been confiscated.
The national security law went into effect late June 30 after ceremonial votes by China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC). The law criminalizes individuals for any acts of subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, with maximum penalties of life imprisonment.
Police made mass arrests throughout the day and said it arrested around 370 people from the site of protests by the end of Wednesday. 10 were arrested on suspicion of violating the national security law.
From The Epoch Times