Organizer of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil said to be arrested

Hong Kong, June 4 dmanewsdesk: A member of the committee that organises Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown was arrested early Friday on the 32nd anniversary, local media reported.

Public broadcaster RTHK and others reported Chow Hang Tung, the vice chair of The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was arrested by police early Friday.

It is not clear why Chow was arrested, and police have yet to comment on the matter.

The committee organises the vigil and ran a museum dedicated to the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. The vigil has been banned by city authorities for a second year, and the museum was closed this week.

Despite the ban on the vigil and police warning residents that marking the event in the usual Victoria Park venue may be illegal, Chow has continued her activism, urging people to commemorate the event privately by lighting a candle wherever they are.

Two other key members of the Hong Kong Alliance Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho are behind bars for their participation in unauthorized assemblies in 2019.

Chow said in an interview with The Associated Press last month that she was expecting to be imprisoned at some point for her activism.

I’m already being persecuted for participating and inciting last year’s candlelight vigil, she said.

If I continue my activism in pushing for democracy in Hong Kong and China, surely they will come after me at some point, so it’s sort of expected.

Source:(AP)