Pro-democracy party reacts to Hong Kong arrests

Описание: (6 Jan 2021) A group of democracy advocates on Wednesday condemned the arrests in Hong Kong of 53 former lawmakers and democracy proponents as "ridiculous to the extreme."
They gathered on Wednesday at a press conference to call for their release, chanting "free all political prisoners" and "stand and fight".
Police on Wednesday arrested 53 people for allegedly violating the new national security law by participating in the unofficial election primaries for the territory's legislature.
More than 600,000 Hong Kongers took part in a vote to see which pro-democracy candidates they would prefer, in advance of Legislative Council elections planned for September 2020.
The government subsequently postponed the Legislative Council elections, citing virus concerns.
Alan Leong, Chairman of the pro-democracy Civic Party, said that authorities' claims that trying to win a majority of seats in the Legislative Council was "subversive" was in itself a departure from rights promised in the territory's mini-Constitution, or Basic Law.
He urged Hong Kongers "not to despair", but to "insist on speaking the truth".
The mass arrests were the largest crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy movement since the law was imposed by China last June to quell dissent in the semi-autonomous territory.

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