Team News Riveting
At a time when China is targeting other countries specially the United States for the alleged human rights violations, a startling figure of how it dealt with anti-government protesters has come out in open.
The figures were disclosed in papers released to lawmakers on Thursday by the Department of Justice, the Civil Service Bureau, and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau underlining that the Hong Kong police have arrested more than 10,200 people in connection with the anti-government protests. The arrests have been made in the last 20 months since mid-2019.
They have been charged with offences such as unlawful assembly, arson, desecrating the national flag, possession of an offensive weapon, assaulting a police officer, and stopping a vehicle on an expressway.
Of the 2,521 arrestees having undergone or undergoing judicial proceedings, 883 have to bear legal consequences – including 614 convicted, 261 bound over, four subjected to a care or protection order and four punished in civil proceedings for contempt of court, the justice department said, adding that 720 charged with rioting. Those feeling the Chinese action include 26 serving civil servants who have been charged over their suspected involvement in the social unrest. Eight probationers’ service had been terminated under the Civil Service Regulations.
Hong Kong was rocked by months of protests, which were sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill in June 2019. The opposition to the bill morphed into wider and often violent civil unrest, with police heavily criticised for their handling of the protesters, and themselves becoming targets of online doxxing.
It eventually led to Beijing imposing National Security Law last June, and since then stability and order have been gradually restored.
