Hongkong: ”Longhair” arresterad

Dear Chief Executive Donald Tsang,

I am writing to you to protest over the arrest of Legislative Council candidate Leung Kwok-hung, trade union leader Lee Cheuk-yan (General Secretary of HKCTU), and other pro-democracy campaigners who are charged with participating in an “unlawful assembly” on 25 December 2009. That demonstration was against the 11-year prison sentence imposed on Liu Xiaobo, author of Charter 08, by a Beijing court on the same day.

The Hong Kong arrests appear to be a politically inspired action by the Hong Kong police at a time when the territory is debating election reforms and facing byelections. These arrests also coincide with growing unease over a marked increase in governmental repression against dissidents in China, an unease that has only been heightened by the harsh punishment of Liu Xiaobo. It seems that China’s crackdown on dissent is now being extended to Hong Kong. How else can one interpret these arrests – two months after the event – of prominent public figures for showing solidarity with imprisoned Chinese dissidents?

There is widespread concern internationally, as in China and Hong Kong, that the Chinese regime is becoming more not less authoritarian, and that the Hong Kong government is adapting itself and conforming to this more repressive atmosphere despite the formula of “one country two systems”. Any attempt to influence by means of trumped up charges, the coming byelections in Hong Kong or public protests against repression by the Chinese state, would be deplorable.

The charges against Leung Kwok-hung and the other accused should be dropped immediately. I would appreciate a reply outlining your government’s position on this extremely serious development.

Yours sincerely,