Hong Kong: Hong Kong Police reportedly investigated the group that held the March annual protest marking the handover of the semiutonomous region to China for the possibility of violations of national security law.
Police are gathering evidence and can take action against the civil human rights fronts, which hold March 1 July every year and also hold several larger political protests that rocked the city in 2019, Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee to Ta Kung Pao Newspapers in interviews published Friday.
SIU told the newspaper that the group had never officially registered with the government and the police because it was founded in 2002.
“Anyone who violates the law, they better not think they can escape,” SIU said.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
The group will be the latest target of sweeping crackdown on differences of opinion that has followed the coercion of Beijing National Security Law in this region.
Legislation prohibits separation, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion and has been used to capture more than 100 pro-democracy figures since they were first applied a year ago and Apple’s pro-democracy newspaper closure every day.
The piercing-crackdown almost silenced opposition voices in the city – and attracted sanctions from the US against Hong Kong and Chinese government officials.
South China morning newspapers reported Friday that the civil human rights fronts had decided to dissolve, but not openly announced decisions.
The group did not respond to a comment request through their social media site, while public email for the group returned an error message.
The Group regulates massive protests in June 2019 to the proposed extradition law that will enable suspects in Hong Kong to try in mainland China, where the justice system is blurry and is often criticized as rude.
The proposed law is seen as a further violation of Beijing against the freedom of the former British colony promised it can defend it to follow the handover of 1997.
Although the proposed bill was finally withdrawn, massive protests then developed into a broader call for greater freedom of democracy, which leads to the months of demonstration that sometimes turns into violence between police and protesters.
Because the National Security Law applies, many unions, associations and political organizations have been dissolved amid fears that the law can be used to target them.
The biggest teacher union in the city – is widely seen as pro-democracy – disbanded earlier this week, citing drastic changes in the political landscape.
SIU said in the interview that the civil humanized human rights front had been double the past year which might violate security law, even when the previous authorities said that national security law was not retroactive.
The organization was previously part of a police investigation in April for the legality of their operations.
Some of the most prominent members of the civil human rights front, including former leader Figo Chan and Jimmy Sham, are currently imprisoned on charges related to their activism.
Chan was punished for organizing an invalid assembly, while Sham had been returned since the parade for his involvement in the unofficial primary election last year that the authorities said were part of the plot to paralyze the government.