2015-01-16
Student activist Joshua Wong (R) and other students display pro-democracy placards outside the Wanchai police station in Hong Kong, Jan. 16, 2015.
AFP
Police in Hong Kong on Friday hauled four student leaders of the 79-day Occupy Central pro-democracy movement in for questioning following their earlier arrest on public order charges, as a writers’ group issued a report charting a worsening climate for freedom of the press in the territory.
Agnes Chow, Derek Lam and Oscar Lai from the academic activist group Scholarism arrived at police headquarters in the semi-autonomous Chinese city to the sound of pro-democracy slogans chanted by supporters holding aloft yellow umbrellas, the symbol of the Umbrella Movement for fully democratic elections in the former British colony.
The three were arrested last month on suspicion of inciting, organizing and participating in illegal assemblies, but were later released unconditionally after refusing police bail.
Later on Friday, protest leader and Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong also arrived for questioning, also refused to answer police questions and was released unconditionally along with the others.
No charges were brought against the four.
Wong, who flashed a defiant victory sign as he went into the building, said the Umbrella Movement isn’t over.
“[Further arrests] would just motivate more of the secondary school or university students to come out on the streets and join the action,” he told reporters at the scene.
Wong said he had refused to answer police questions, and that police lacked enough evidence to charge him, despite showing him video clips of his involvement in the protest movement that blocked key highways and intersections in Hong Kong from late September.
“I am still confident and optimistic for further action and more of the Umbrella Movement, and continue to fight for universal suffrage,” said Wong, who was arrested on the last day of the protest.
‘A little nervous’
Chow said she was “a little nervous” after receiving her summons. “But I believe that what I am doing is worthwhile,” she said before entering the police station. “There is nothing wrong with fighting for democracy.”
One of the Occupy supporters at the scene said he was there because he had been arrested at the same time as Wong, when police cleared the remaining protest encampment near government headquarters last month.
“I’m a student too, and I have a duty to support him and to root for him,” said the student, also surnamed Wong.
A police spokesman later confirmed that Joshua Wong and the three other Scholarism members were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly, adding that police would “reserve the right to prosecute” in future, the English-language South China Morning Post newspaper reported.
Veteran democracy activist and independent lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, known by his nickname “Long Hair,” said the police were trying to create an atmosphere of fear around the movement by summoning people weeks after the Occupy movement had ended.
