Hong Kong activist Agnes Chow fails to report to police after fleeing to Canada
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong activist Agnes Chow failed to report to authorities on Thursday, police said, weeks after she announced she had fled to Canada and would not return to meet her bail conditions.
Chow was jailed for her role in Hong Kong’s massive 2019 pro-democracy protests, but was later allowed to go abroad to study on condition that she reported in person to police at specified times.
The activist said on December 3 that she had decided not to return to the Chinese city after “considering the situation in Hong Kong, my personal safety, my physical and mental health”.
Police confirmed that the deadline was set for Thursday and strongly condemned Chow’s “shameful acts of absconding to avoid legal responsibilities”.
“Fugitives should not have any delusion that they could evade legal liabilities by absconding from Hong Kong,” police said.
Hong Kong leader John Lee had previously vowed that fugitives “will be pursued for life”, adding that Chow’s decision to jump bail showed she was “devoid of integrity”.
Chow was one of the best-known young faces of the 2012, 2014 and 2019 protest movements against Beijing’s increasingly authoritarian rule in Hong Kong.
She spent around seven months behind bars for her role in a protest outside the city’s police headquarters in 2019, when huge crowds rallied week after week in the most serious challenge to China’s rule since Hong Kong’s 1997 handover from Britain.
Separately, Chow was arrested for “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security” under a Beijing-imposed national security law.
Chow told AFP in an earlier interview that police had allowed her to leave Hong Kong on bail only if she agreed to pen a letter of repentance and travel to mainland China as part of a tour promoting the country’s achievements.
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