Pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho defended Hong Kong’s homegrown security law at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Tuesday, saying he was a victim of violence during the city’s 2019 protests and unrest.
“I was targeted for exercising my free speech in condemning the violence and destruction caused by members of the anti-extradition bloc,” Ho said.
“I am here today because the knife that had stabbed me barely missed my heart, and I will not wish that to happen ever again in a civil society. Which is why I am pleased to announce that the implementation of Article 23 of the Basic Law of the HKSAR will soon be fulfilled in this year,” he continued.
Referring to the need to tackle “domestic terrorists,” Ho claimed that the new security law, which is separate to the Beijing-imposed 2020 security law, had public support and would safeguard stability.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
Whilst frontline protesters were responsible for property damage and some physical attacks, millions also protested peacefully on the streets over several months in 2019.
Ho was stabbed during the unrest on November 6, 2019, by Tung Pak-fai, who was jailed for nine years in September 2021 after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm. He lost a bid to challenge his jail term in September 2022.
On that day, Ho, then a Tuen Mun district councillor, was campaigning for re-election ahead of the District Council polls. Tung was said to have approached the politician pretending to be a supporter before pulling out a 20-centimetre-long knife from his bag and stabbing Ho.
Ho himself was also the centre of controversy during the demonstrations. In July 2019, he was filmed shaking hands with men who were suspected of being involved in the Yuen Long mob attacks. He was seen praising them for their hard work while giving them the thumbs up.
Forty-five people were injured with one left in a critical condition after hundreds of mean wearing white and wielding sticks assaulted residents, journalists and Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting in and around Yuen Long MTR station following a protest. Ho later said he only learned of the attacks after his interactions with the men.
On Tuesday, Ho was speaking on behalf of the International Probono Legal Services Association in response to a UN hearing on human rights in Hong Kong in January.
A total of 162 stakeholders made submissions for China’s Universal Periodic Review, a meeting that requires UN member states to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every four and a half years.
Amnesty International UK said in its submission that Hong Kong authorities had used “vague national security and sedition charges,” including but not limited to the national security law, to “remove all political opposition, undermine long-established means of scrutinizing, critiquing, and trying to influence government actions, and criminalise various kinds of expression, association, and advocacy.”
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
Jimmy Lai case
Also addressing the UN hearing on Tuesday was Gary Wong, a board member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies. He hit out at UN rights experts who had called for the release of media tycoon Jimmy Lai in January.
With the trial of the Apple Daily founder currently underway, Wong claimed that Lai was a “major mastermind and financial supporter at the highest level of command behind the riots in Hong Kong.” Wong added that he had colluded with the US to interfere in local affairs, even though the matter was still being considered in court.
Lai, 76, has pleaded not guilty to “sedition” and “collusion” charges in a high-profile national security case that could see him jailed for life.
According to the special rapporteurs on freedom of expression; on freedom of association; on degrading treatment or punishment; and on the independence of judges and lawyers in January, “Jimmy Lai’s arrest, detention and series of criminal proceedings over the past few years appear to be directly related to his criticism of the Chinese government and his support for democracy in Hong Kong.”
Wong claimed the UN experts were “politically motivated.”
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