HongKong
The national security trial of three former leaders of a now-disbanded Tiananmen vigil group will not begin this year, a Hong Kong judge has said, more than two years since the group was charged. Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and Lee Cheuk-yan, formerly of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, appeared on Wednesday in the High Court for a second case management hearing. The trio, along with the alliance itself, were jointly charged in September 2021 under the Beijing-imposed national security law with inciting subversion of state power. Chow and Lee had bee...
Hong Kong Free Press
A fundraising concert organised by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has been forced to move online, after the live performance was axed due to “irresistible force,” the press group said. HKJA announced on Wednesday that the live concert scheduled for Sunday would take place online on May 8, after the show was called off due to unforeseen circumstances in the final stages of preparation. “[The fundraising concert] has unfortunately been cancelled due to an irresistible force in the final stages of preparation… We hope that everyone can continue to support us in this new format,” a C...
Hong Kong Free Press
Radical groups broke into two university laboratories to steal chemicals for a bomb plot to murder police officers during the 2019 protests and unrest, the prosecution told a terrorism jury trial on Wednesday. Seven people are standing trial under the city’s anti-terrorism act at the High Court, with prosecutors – for the first time – invoking the offence to charge a group accused of planning to carry out a bomb attack during a rally on December 8, 2019. The plot allegedly took place during the months-long pro-democracy demonstrations and unrest which rocked the city that year. The 60-day jury...
Hong Kong Free Press
Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai’s arrest dealt a “heavy blow” to pro-democracy advocacy group Stand With Hong Kong, causing it to lose its connections to US politicians, the media mogul’s national security trial has heard. Activist Andy Li was also arrested in the same police swoop on August 10, 2020, but the activist group had a “Plan B” to sustain lobbying efforts overseas, said paralegal Chan Tsz-wah, who stands accused of conspiring with Lai and others to collude with foreign forces. Lai faces two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiring to publish “sed...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong police have received over 28,000 tip-offs via the anti-terrorism hotline since its launch in June 2022, including reports of suspected possession of weapons and suspected harbouring of explosives. Police told HKFP on Wednesday that public vigilance against terrorism increased as the authorities heightened promotion and educational efforts, and encouraged residents to report suspicious activity. Hotline ‘upgrade’Upon its launch, police said the hotline was an “upgrade” to an existing anti-violence hotline, which was set up in 2019 as city-wide protests erupted against a since-axed ext...
Hong Kong Free Press
An NGO serving Hong Kong’s low-income residents has urged the government to delay the enforcement of a controversial waste charging scheme among disadvantaged tenants of “cage homes,” subdivided units and those in “three-nil” buildings. “Three-nil” buildings are generally those which lack an owners’ company, residents’ organisation or property management firm to manage the building. Alongside eight residents, the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) went to the Legislative Council (LegCO) on Tuesday to lodge a complaint and spoke of residents’ concerns about the upcoming waste charging sc...
Hong Kong Free Press
The verdict in the sedition trial of Hong Kong news outlet Stand News and two of its former chief editors has been further postponed to the end of August, according to the judiciary. Non-profit digital news outlet Stand News ceased operations and deleted its website in December 2021 after its newsroom was raided by over 200 national security police officers. Seven people connected to the independent outlet were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to “publish seditious publications.” However, only ex-chief editor Chung Pui-kuen, acting chief editor Patrick Lam and parent company Best Pencil (Ho...
Hong Kong Free Press
Beijing and Hong Kong have said that the US has “smeared” Hong Kong’s law enforcement actions after Washington published a report stating that the city had “significant human rights issues.” The 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the US Department of State on Monday was “unfounded and biased,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement on Tuesday night. ‘Arbitrary detention’ The annual report claimed that there were credible reports of arbitrary arrest and detention or detainees in Hong Kong under the Beijing-imposed national security law and other legislation. It cit...
Hong Kong Free Press
A government advisory body has conditionally approved a report on the environmental impact of building a technology hub near the city’s border with mainland China, despite criticism from green groups. The Advisory Council on the Environment (ACE), a government-appointed body, on Monday unanimously endorsed the government’s environmental impact assessment for the San Tin Technopole. See also: What is Hong Kong’s San Tin Technopole and why is the planned tech hub controversial? The report was submitted by the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD). The planned tech hub will cover 62...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong restaurants have been slow to switch to eco-friendly alternatives following the single-use plastics ban enacted on Monday, with many still using disposables. Single-use plastics including straws and utensils are forbidden under the ban. Restaurants have a six-month grace period to comply with the new rules, under which the government will not take enforcement actions. As the transition began on Monday, coinciding with Earth Day, chain eateries have been quicker to make the transition than smaller restaurants. Of the eight eateries visited by HKFP, only two had started using paper con...
Hong Kong Free Press
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