Hong Kong activist Owen Chow arrested by national security over prison contraband rules
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong activist Owen Chow has been arrested by national security officers, while in remand, on suspicion of “carrying unauthorised items out of a prison,” with local media reporting that the 26-year-old was arrested along with his two lawyers.
The police force said on Thursday night that a man aged 26 was arrested in Cheung Sha Wan district, while two women – aged 29 and 30 – were arrested on Hong Kong Island. The two women were Chow’s lawyers, local media outlets Ming Pao and Sing Tao reported, citing sources.
They were suspected of carrying unauthorised items out of a detention facility in Cheung Sha Wan and were arrested by national security police, the statement read. The two women have been granted bail, pending further investigation, and are required to report to the police later this month.
Chow is among 47 prominent democrats arrested and charged under the security law with “conspiracy to commit subversion” in 2021, after they organised primaries in a bid to win the 2020 legislative election.
On Wednesday, Chow pleaded guilty to rioting on July 1, 2019, when the city’s legislature was stormed by hundreds of protesters during the early days of the anti-extradition bill unrest.
According to the Prisons Ordinance, any person who carries “any arms, ammunition, weapon, instrument, intoxicating liquor, opium or other drugs, tobacco, money, clothing, provisions, letters, papers, books or any other article whatsoever” out of a prison may be fined HK2,000 and imprisoned for three years.
Chow was granted bail in June 2021 after spending four months in custody awaiting his subversion trial. He had his bail revoked and was rearrested last January after he breached bail terms by publishing speech that could be seen as endangering national security.
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