A suspect arrested by Hong Kong police on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown has been released on bail, while an activist popularly known as “Grandma Wong” remains in custody.
The suspect released on bail on Wednesday was a 23-year-old-man surnamed Shum, who was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting security guards at Victoria Park.
A source said 78-year-old Alexandra Wong Fung-yiu, known by her Cantonese nickname “Wong Po Po”, was arrested on the same day over sedition-related offences under the domestic national security law for chanting slogans in Causeway Bay’s Yee Wo Street.
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The pair were among four arrests made on Tuesday, with the other two being a 24-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman for allegedly assaulting two police officers and committing misconduct in a public place, respectively.
The source said the 24-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman were currently at Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai.
All four may face charges later on.
Tuesday also saw another three men and two women, aged 27 to 88, taken back to a police station for investigation over alleged breaches of the peace. The group included a Japanese national and a Swiss national. The five were later released.
Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park in past decades was used as a venue for a candlelight vigil marking the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the only such large-scale commemoration to take place on Chinese soil.
The event was banned on public health grounds in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, while organiser Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was disbanded a year after Beijing imposed the 2020 national security law.
No opposition groups have submitted applications to hold similar events since the group’s disbandment, but sporadic “commemorations” were seen at Causeway Bay amid heavy police presence on Tuesday.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Remembering the Tiananmen crackdown: what happened to Hong Kong’s June 4 vigil?
- Hong Kong bookstore draws stream of visitors with HK$6.4 candles, ‘35/5’ displays on anniversary of Tiananmen crackdown
- Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers to look out for commemorations of Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4 anniversary
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