London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

All but one among 53 held under Hong Kong national security law released

All but one among 53 held under Hong Kong national security law released

Police say ex-Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai claimed he had already turned in his travel documents before admitting keeping BN(O) passport during interview.

Police have released all of the more than 50 Hong Kong opposition activists arrested earlier this week under the national security law, the Post has learned, except for former Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai, who was remanded after he failed to surrender his British National (Overseas) passport as ordered by a magistrate.

West Kowloon Court on Friday revoked Wu Chi-wai’s bail, as police accused the 58-year-old of violating the conditions of his temporary release arising from a previous charge.

Wu, who was among those arrested on Wednesday, was accused of failing to submit his BN(O) passport to the court when he was ordered to surrender all travel documents after he was charged on December 17 over an unapproved rally last summer.

Instead, he only presented his Hong Kong passport and home return permit, in addition to signing a declaration indicating he did not own a BN(O) document.

When police arrested Wu on Wednesday morning at his home in Wong Tai Sin and asked him to surrender his travel documents, he allegedly said he had already done so in previous criminal proceedings. Officers found the BN(O) passport only after the former lawmaker confessed to keeping one during a police interview.


Police say they found Wu Chi-wai’s BN(O) passport during a search of his home.


Wednesday’s mass arrest of 53 people marked the biggest crackdown on the opposition since the Beijing-imposed national security law took effect on June 30 last year.

Those held, including Wu, were accused of subversion for their involvement in an unofficial primary poll ahead of elections for the city’s legislature last year. The government subsequently postponed the polls for a year on public health grounds. Those found guilty of the crime could face the maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

With the release of the suspects on bail and without any charge, political analysts and critics, as well as legal experts, have raised questions over the need then to haul up the entire group without yet proceeding with a case. Several analysts also wondered about the detention of lesser-known activists who only ran in the primary elections and were not the organisers.

University of Hong Kong law professor Albert Chen Hung-yee said as these were national security cases, the city’s justice secretary had to tread cautiously to avoid prosecution without a strong chance of conviction.

“If people are prosecuted and the court rules that they are not guilty, the political consequences will be hard to predict. Therefore, the secretary should not prosecute anyone unless she is quite certain that the case can be won in court,” Chen warned.

Aside from Wu, six other Democratic Party members were arrested, including former lawmakers Lam Cheuk-ting, Helena Wong Pik-wan and Andrew Wan Siu-kin. At a press conference on Friday, Lam said he and his family were shocked when police arrived at their home on Wednesday.

“The primary was just intended to find candidates to represent the camp in the Legco elections. The police’s allegations were ridiculous, and the pan-democratic camp must be united and show no fear,” he said.

Wong said the mass arrest was aimed at stopping opposition activists from running in elections, or monitoring the government.

Among those released on bail on Thursday was the architect of the primary poll, legal academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who left Ma On Shan Police Station just before midnight.

Writing on his Patreon page, Tai said on Friday: “I am now safe at home. It is difficult to tell what will happen in the future. I have prepared for the worst. Thank you for your continued support for me to continue my journey against the wind.

“In the coming days, I may not express my views publicly that much. I will focus on my writing on the rule of law. I hope that the days of spring will not be too far away.”

Tai, who had drafted a “35-plus” strategy to win more than half of the 70 seats in the legislature, was singled out by both the Office for Safeguarding National Security and Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, which issued statements backing the crackdown on Wednesday.

Wu, meanwhile, had been remanded by the court on Thursday pending Friday’s bail hearing.

William Siu Kai-yip, for the prosecution, asked the court to revoke Wu’s bail, adding the Department of Justice might press further charges, including making a false declaration and misleading police.

Wu’s lawyer, Christopher Grounds, urged the court to continue his bail, saying he had obeyed all other conditions during the period concerned and was willing to accept more stringent terms.

But Principal Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen sided with the prosecution and ordered Wu be remanded until he was brought to court again next month.

“I revoke your bail … You are in breach of your bail conditions,” the magistrate said.

The same court will review Wu’s bail application on January 15 in relation to last summer’s rally.

Wu faces three charges over the unauthorised rally on July 1 last year, when police banned the annual opposition procession for the first time since the city’s handover to China in 1997.

The charges, including inciting others to take part in an unauthorised assembly, organising an unauthorised assembly, and knowingly taking part in an unauthorised assembly, each carry a maximum jail term of five years.

Wednesday’s mass arrests, which included a raid on a law firm and the serving of court orders to four media outlets demanding journalists surrender documents related to the case, was welcomed by Beijing, but Western nations condemned the move as an attack on human rights.

In a statement, the EU said the arrests penalised political activity that should be entirely legitimate in any political system that respected basic democratic principles.

“They are the latest indication that the national security law is being used by the Hong Kong and mainland authorities to stifle political pluralism in Hong Kong,” the statement read.

The EU called for the immediate release of those arrested, and for local officials to safeguard Hong Kong’s civil liberties.

In a separate statement, five prominent Hong Kong lawyers, including Eric Cheung Tat-ming and Mark Daly, also urged the city government to clarify whether it had abandoned any due regard for the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Basic Law, including freedom of expression and assembly.

They noted that in 2003, when the Hong Kong government tried to enact national security legislation, the Security Bureau acknowledged the need for that to be consistent with the Johannesburg Principles, which stated that “a restriction [seeking] to be justified on the grounds of national security is not legitimate unless its genuine purpose … is to protect a country’s existence or its territorial integrity against the use or threat of force”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×