#thread
On the protest-annulled Labour Day in HK, leftist party League of Social Democrats and the Women Workers Association would have small group petitions separately outside the government HQs to advocate for labour rights.
Before the 1st group LSD arrived , some 20-30 officers were seen deployed nearby with at least two holding a video camera to record the petition.
When Chan Po-ying, chairwoman of LSD arrived, an acting sergeant from the central police precinct read out an 8-point “reminder” to her. The points will be laid out in English translation from the next tweet.
The 8 points are: 1. You must observe the #NSL 2. You must ensure there won’t be any acts endangering national security namely the seditious offence under Article 9 of the Crimes Ordinance 3. If you find any act endangering national security you must notify the police immediately
4. You must be present throughout the event 5. If there are other groups participating in the event you must separate and identify them 6. Bear in mind the mask ban on public assemblies is still in force
7. You must adopt appropriate measures to make sure all the requirements above are met 8. You must also observe the Societies Ordinance
More than a dozen women, kids and elderly joined the petition of the Women Workers Association. They prepared a banner but were stopped by a plain cloth police when they rolled out the banner as they were arriving at the petition spot.
A similar reminder was read out to a representative of the Women Workers Association by the same sergeant.
#NOW Denny To, a former member of now-disbanded pro-democratic CTU, is setting up a street booth in Tsuen Wan for labour rights. To and Joe Wong, ex CTU leader, applied for police permission for a May 1 march but had to withdraw after Wong went missing for a few hours last week.
An officer from the public relations dept of Tsuen Wan police precinct asked To and his two helpers to provide their ID cards for registration before they could start the street booth. By far To has been speaking and his partners handing out leaflets without police intervention.
The most loyal listeners of Denny To’s street booth speech : reporters and police.
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Beijing’s top man on HK Macau affairs Xia Baolong is set to deliver a speech to over 1,000 officials and guests in HKCEC for the national security education day ceremony. Multiple government information services officers at the scene said things are not in their hands…
…and should reporters have questions such as how many journalists were successfully registered to cover the event, and what is in the brochure on each of the chair for the ceremony attendees , reporters should ask the host - National Security Committee- directly.
One interesting detail at the scene - where the theme slogan is “national security,foundation of stability and prosperity” - bottled water prepared for the guests is of German brand Landpark.
“We all agreed that the legislation of Article 23 (of the Basic Law) will happen very soon 好快會發生,” said HK Bar Council chairman Victor Dawes at a press briefing just now wrapping the 1st day of the council’s first visit to Beijing in 5 years.
Dawes was talking about the close-door meeting the council’s delegation had this morning with Shen Chunyao, chairman of the NPCSC Legal Work Committee. Dawes said they had “candid communication” that touched upon a wide range of topics including the #BL23 legislation and #NSL.
“We emphasised to Chairman Shen that in the legislative exercise, other than safeguarding national security, the protection for human rights should be considered and we hope a fine balance can be struck,” Dawes said.
#NOW Au Nok-hin, first of the 4 accomplice witnesses in the #NSL trial charging 47 pro-dem activists of "conspiracy to commit subversion" over an unofficial primary of the camp, began to take the prosecution's witness stand this afternoon as judges decided to...
...have reading-out of the admitted facts to give way for the calling of witnesses.
Although the #NSL prosecutor Anthony Chau asked Au to tell how the 35+ project began from "early 2020", Au said "the story began from December 2019", when #BennyTai ...
...published an article outlining his vision for the pro-dem camp winning majority in LegCo on the now-shuttered #AppleDaily.
Au also revealed to court that he met Tai to discuss the idea for the first time at a meal gathering in "late January 2020"...
#JUSTIN Two HK young men in their early 20 were just now sentenced to 5 years in jail for “conspiracy to incite subversion” as members of the now disbanded activist group “Returning Valiants”. 5 other minor defendants in the same case were sentenced to training center last year.
The two young men are Choi Wing-kit, 21, and Chris Chan Yau-tsun, 26. Choi was also sentenced to 6 months in jail for "possession of offensive weapon" in a separate burglary case, among which 3 months will be running concurrently with the 5-year sentence.
The police operation between May and Sep 2021 against #ReturningValiant was the second largest group arrest under #NSL by far, following the mass round-up of 55 pro-dem politicians on 6 Jan 2021 over the allegedly subversive pro-dem camp primary election (currently in trial).
#Thread
Who are in the curious long queue outside the West Kowloon Court trying to take up public seats for the largest #NSL trial with 47 pro-dem politicians and activists charged of "conspiracy to commit subversion" ?
Pro-Beijing Ta Kung Pao had some serious thoughts.
In its signature column today, Ta Kung Pao ran a piece entitled "Resolutely stop the ill trend of 'court attending masters' troubling courts" accusing public members who attended trials in relation to the 2019 protests "fellows of the black-clad riots". But ...
...the opening example of this commentary is "As the Primary Election case opened trial in the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts, there are large number of people queuing for a seats in the trial's public gallery every early morning - some even stood in line overnight".