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Six people were detained in Hong Kong for publishing social media posts that “incited anger” against Beijing, according to a new safety rules.
Five people and one male- including advocate Chow Hang Tung- were arrested on Tuesday, it was announced.
Officials claimed that the team was posting messages that targeted a” delicate date”– which was reportedly the 4 June Tiananmen Square anniversary.
The team may spend up to seven years in prison if found guilty under the stricter sanctions imposed by the fresh rules, known as Article 23.
The legislation, which was rapidly- tracked through Hong Kong’s pro- Beijing legislature in March, covers crime, rebellion and express secrets, and allows for trials to get held behind closed doors.
It expands on the laws enacted by Beijing in 2020 regarding regional stability.
The government of Hong Kong claims balance is essential, but its advantages sparked fears that civil liberties would suffer even more.
According to the original national security legislation, Ms. Chow was now incarcerated and facing legal proceedings.
She is renowned for helping with Tiananmen Square memorial events in the metropolis. She is a barrister. For decades, Hong Kong was the only Taiwanese town where these commemorations were allowed, under the town’s semi- automatic economic, political and legal established up- known as “one state, two systems”- established when the city was handed over to China by the UK in 1997.
But activities remembering the 1989 event, which saw China crush peaceful protests in Beijing with vehicles and troops, were banned in 2020.
The charges relate to a Facebook group that had published a number of posts that remembered earlier events, according to the South China Morning Post.
Chris Tang, the secretary for security, confirmed that the posts were Facebook posts, and told reporters that the issue was not with the subject.
He claimed, as quoted by the SCMP, that the accused had “incited hatred against the central government, our Hong Kong government, and the judiciary.”
” This incitement of hatred is the cause of the crime”, he added.