Pan-dems Slam Arrests As 'political Intimidation'

The pan-democratic camp has accused the police of political intimidation as they condemned the arrests of legislators Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting over incidents linked to anti-government protests last year.

Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai accused the police of seeking revenge against the duo for their criticisms of the force's actions, and party lawmaker James To likened the arrest of Lam over the Yuen Long attacks to turning "white into black".

Wu accused the police of taking revenge on the pair for their criticisms about the force. Lam had been a vocal critic of what he sees as the police’s lack of response towards the Yuen Long attacks on July 21 last year, and Hui had initiated a private prosecution against a policeman.

Wu said the arrests amount to “pointing to a deer and calling it a horse,” as they were only discharging their duties as legislators at the time, and that it was "ridiculous" that Lam had gone from being a victim to a suspect.

Fellow Democratic Party lawmaker James To described the arrests as political persecution, and said that turning Lam from being a victim to a suspect was like “calling white black”.

He said the Yuen Long incident attracted a lot of international attention, that the arrests of Lam and Hui reflected why the international community has no confidence in Hong Kong and could affect foreign investment confidence in the SAR.

Meanwhile, the Civic Party condemned the arrests, saying they are part of a push by the authorities to use different methods to crack down on the pro-democracy movement.

The party's leader, Alvin Yeung, said they won't succeed in misleading the public, saying "any attempt to whitewash the wrongdoings from those in powers is deemed to fail".

"The truth will always be the truth, all Hong Kong citizens with a reasonable mind would know what had happened last year on July 21 in Yuen Long station, so any attempts to try and undo or rewrite history, they will not succeed."

Hui, who was arrested in relation to a protest outside Tuen Mun police station on July 6 last year, also released a statement, saying he was only mediating at the scene.

In a joint statement, 20 pro-democracy lawmakers accused the "law enforcers" of blatantly insulting and intimidating people's representatives.

They said these actions show the government has no intention of addressing allegations of police brutality during last year's protests.