Hong Kong police raid headquarters of political opposition party

Beijing, Oct 28 (EFE).- Police in Hong Kong has raided the main office of the opposition League of Social Democrats (LSD) as part of an ongoing probe into the now-disbanded Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) that had organized protests in 2019.

LSD chairperson Chan Po-Ying said officers told them they needed to collect documents related to the front.

But the police did not seize anything after the hour-long search, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported.

She described the raid as “ridiculous,” and “a political intimidation to the LSD and civil society, creating a chilling effect.”

Chan, the wife of jailed former LSD legislator Leung Kwok-hung, said the police claimed that the party had “received information from the front” between 2019 and 2020.

“Although the police did not take away any documents, they have caused unnecessary nuisance to us,” she said.

The CHRF disbanded in August, saying it could no longer operate due to the “suppression from the authorities.”

The police had accused the CHRF of failing to register under the Societies Ordinance and demanded it hand over information relating to its finance and past protests.

After its founding in 2002, the front organized some of the largest demonstrations in the city, including annually on July 1, the date of the British handover to China in 1997, and others in the framework of the anti-government protest movement of the second half of 2019.

Contrary to other demonstrations of the 2019 movement, the CHRF marches were generally peaceful and had a very high number of participants, in some cases exceeding one million.

Dozens of political and non-governmental organizations have disbanded after China extended the controversial national security law to the semi-autonomous territory following months of anti-government protests.

The law, imposed on June 30, 2020, criminalizes subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces to interfere in city affairs.

The former British colony was handed over into Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Beijing had pledged to maintain the prevailing freedoms in the territory for 50 years until 2047 under the 1984 Sino-British Declaration. EFE

jt-ssk