3 yıl önce

Hong Kong lawmakers arrested over disruption of legislature

The arrested include current and former opposition lawmakers, according to their political parties and media reports.

AFP

In this file photo taken on May 8, 2020, pro-democracy lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick (top C) shouts at security trying to restrain him after pro-Beijing lawmaker Starry Lee (not seen) sat in the chairperson’s seat before a key committee meeting at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong police have arrested seven people over scuffles that broke out in the city’s legislature during a faceoff between anti-Beijing and pro-Beijing lawmakers earlier this year.

The arrested include current and former opposition lawmakers, according to their political parties and media reports.

A police statement said that six men and one woman had been detained on suspicion of contempt and interfering with legislative members. It did not name them.

The statement said the arrests are part of an investigation into a May 8 committee meeting in which anti-Beijing lawmakers rushed toward the chairperson’s seat and security guards shoved back.

The guards carried out several lawmakers, including Eddie Chu and Ray Chan, after they had been ordered to leave for disorderly conduct. Both stepped down on September 30.

Chan said on Twitter that he was arrested at 7 am Sunday, and Hong Kong media said that Chu had also been arrested.

The Democratic Party said on its Facebook page that three of its legislative members had been arrested including party chairman Wu Chi-wai.

The May 8 incident was the first in a series of scuffles over a bill approved in June that made it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem.

National security law amid protests

China's parliament passed national security legislation for Hong Kong earlier this year, aimed at curbing subversive activity, with Beijing pushing for it after a months-long anti-Beijing protest movement at times saw violent clashes between police and protesters.

Opponents of the anthem bill and the national security law have seen them as signs of Beijing’s tightening control over the territory.

Beijing began pushing for the anthem law after Hong Kong soccer fans jeered the national anthem at international matches in 2015.

As anti-government protests engulfed Hong Kong last year, thousands of fans booed loudly and turned their backs when the anthem was played at a World Cup qualifier match against Iran in September.