Koo Sze-yiu: Hong Kong activist arrested ahead of Winter Olympics protest

The veteran 75-year-old campaigner was planning a demonstration to protest the Beijing Winter Olympics

File photo: Hong Kong activist Koo Sze-yiu speaks to the media after arriving at a court in Hong Kong on 30 September 2020 (Associated Press)

Veteran 75-year-old Hong Kong activist Koo Sze-yiu has been arrested under a national security law, days after he announced plans to protest the Beijing Winter Olympics outside government offices in the city.

The senior member of the League of Social Democrats, who has cancer, was taken into custody around 6am on Friday from his home in Cheung Sha Wan district and sent to a police station for questioning.

The charge against him — inciting subversion against the state — carries a penalty of life sentence under the contentious national security law.

Mr Koo was planning to demonstrate outside Beijing’s Liaison Office in the city that morning to protest the Winter Olympics. He said he wanted to call attention to the political activists in the country who have been jailed by the administration.

In a letter sent to several media outlets, he had asked the central government not to overlook imprisoned citizens and political figures in Hong Kong who did not have the opportunity to spend the Lunar New Year with their families.

Mr Koo accused the government of “abusing” the national security law and said that many had been “wrongfully detained.”

Other activists were also brought in to help with the investigation, local media said. But it was unclear if they were arrested too.

According to Hong Kong-based online news portal HK01, among the four were activist Lui Yuk-lin and former Democratic Party member Virginia Fung.

Chan Po-ying, chair of the League of Social Democrats was quoted as saying by nonprofit news website HKFP that “if simply protesting at the China Liaison Office can be charged with incitement, it is quite terrifying.”

Mr Koo has been jailed 11 times before.

Ahead of his last hearing, Mr Koo said: “This will not be my last time in jail, there will be a 12th, 13th time. I might even intentionally violate the national security law next time.”

The South China Morning Post newspaper reported that the commissioner of police, Raymond Siu Chak-yee, said last month they had arrested 162 people for alleged breaches of the national security law since the law was imposed by Beijing in June 2020.

It was also reported that the national security department in Hong Kong had prosecuted more than 100 individuals so far and frozen HK$150m (£14m) in assets under the law.