The national security police of Hong Kong detained one of the city’s most well-known rights activists on Tuesday for allegedly tampering with witnesses, a police source told AFP.
Albert Ho, 71, was the former leader of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, which for more than three decades organized an annual candlelight vigil to remember the victims of China’s brutal crackdown on Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The attorney is already facing a maximum sentence of ten years in prison under the national security law, which Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 as a result of extensive and occasionally violent pro-democracy protests.
Ho was detained on Tuesday while out on bail for “allegedly interfering with witnesses,” according to the source, who spoke to AFP under the condition of anonymity because the matter is so delicate.
Around noon, as seen in local media footage, a group of officers wearing jackets bearing the badges of the national security department led the veteran activist out of his home while handcuffed behind his back.
In a later statement, the police confirmed the 71-year-old man’s arrest on suspicion of “perverting the course of public justice,” but they did not give his name.
Ho, who has spent nearly a year in prison, is currently on bail while his subversion case goes to trial. A gag order on any speech deemed to be a threat to national security was one of his bail conditions.
Under Hong Kong law, violating the terms of a bail agreement can result in an immediate arrest.
Ho was detained under the national security law along with his brother, Fred Ho, who was defending labor rights activist Elizabeth Tang Yin-Ngor. Ho’s arrest was the most recent in a string of prominent detentions.
The International Domestic Workers Federation’s secretary-general, Tang, was detained on suspicion of “colluding with foreign forces,” which is also a national security offense.
Police detained Fred Ho and Tang’s sister after she was released on bail on suspicion of plotting to tamper with the legal system.
Both have since been granted bail and released.
