HONG KONG: A member of a radical Hong Kong political opposition party yesterday said he had been arrested six months after throwing a t-shirt at Chinese President Hu Jintao’s motorcade.
League of Social Democrats vice-chairman Avery Ng said he had been arrested on Saturday on a charge of public nuisance, after throwing the t-shirt bearing a drawing of the late Chinese dissident Li Wangyang on June 29.
Hu was visiting the former British colony to mark the 15th anniversary of the territory’s handover and to preside over the city’s leadership change on July 1.
“We were just exercising our basic human right to protest ... and that was already being violated by the police,” Ng said, adding that he threw his t-shirt because police confiscated demonstrators’ banners shortly before the motorcade’s arrival.
Police said they had arrested a 35-year-old local man surnamed Ng on Saturday for a count of “nuisance crimes committed in a public place”.
Ng was released on bail and will appear in court today.
He said he believed the government was attempting to hush opposition ahead of a mass anti-government protest planned for New Year’s Day.
Protesters from various opposition groups plan to take to the streets on January 1 to air concerns over freedom of expression, which they fear is in decline due to increasing Chinese influence on the city, among other issues.
“The whole thing is politically motivated, there’s no question about it,” Ng said, saying that his arrest would not stop him from attending any future demonstrations.
Police used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of protesters as they chanted anti-Beijing slogans on loudspeakers outside the five star hotel Hu was staying in on June 30.
AFP
