Gwyneth Ho: Since When Has There Been "Collective Punishment" in HK?

Since When Has There Been "Collective Punishment" in HK?

Written by Gwyneth Ho (23:20 5 Dec 2020)
Original: https://www.facebook.com/gwynethhokl/posts/212075273759708 
[on Ted Hui going exile and bank accounts of Hui, his wife and his parents frozen]

Of course, it is not stated in the law, but this becomes clear when you look at the following 3 incidents:

1. On 6 July, the government published the implementation rules for Art. 43 of the National Security Law (NSL), of which the third point states that if “the Secretary for Security has reasonable grounds to suspect that any property is property related to an offence endangering national security”, he can have the property related frozen, restrained, confiscated and forfeited. That means, whenever national security is used as an excuse, your property could be simply and quickly frozen;

2. A policeman was stabbed on 1 July, and the police arrested 7 people on 10 July, including that fellow’s girlfriend. The charge was “assisting an offender”, which included driving the person to the airport and helping him to buy a flight ticket. That means, as long as you know that person, you may be accused of “assisting” him/her or “knowing without reporting a crime” (some added in the comments that Starry Lee was already using this to accuse the whole Democratic Party);

3. In Fast Beat’s (Tam Tak-chi) and Jimmy Lai’s cases recently, the charges they face are not those under the NSL, but both cases are being handled by judges assigned under the NSL. This means that non-NSL charges can also be dealt with using the NSL, which goes back to 1.

In addition, there are 7 points in the NSL’s implementation rules, which are:

1. Search of places for evidence without a warrant

2. Surrender of travel documents and restriction from leaving Hong Kong

3. The Secretary for Security’s “suspicion” is sufficient to have any property frozen immediately without going through the court.

4. Removal of messages from Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and Twitter, and requiring network service provider(s) to restrict or cease access to platforms like LIHKG, or even to suspend your accounts directly. In short, an internet ban;

5. The whole world is under the NSL’s scope. Even if you don’t support Hong Kong, the government can threaten foreign forces by written notice, and wait to arrest you once you pass through or enter Hong Kong.

6. Interception of private communications and covert surveillance without the court’s authorisation but approval by the Chief Executive or Commissioner of Police

7. No more personal privacy in Hong Kong or protection of details of bank accounts or private companies, the only thing secure is the police’s whole voters register.

Now you know the definition of this criterion “related to national security” is actually wider than the Atlantic.