Four members of a Hong Kong university student union were arrested Wednesday, August 18, 2021 for allegedly advocating terrorism by paying tribute to a person who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself, police said.
Police have said an officer was stabbed from behind on July 1, while on duty with other policemen preventing protest gatherings on the anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.
The man then stabbed himself in the chest with the knife and died later in the hospital. The policeman, 28, suffered a punctured lung, but survived what Secretary for Security Chris Tang described as a terrorist act by a “lone wolf.”
Police arrested four men between 18 and 20 years old who were committee members and members of the student council at the University of Hong Kong, said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the police national security division. He said the arrests were in relation to a council meeting that “promoted terrorism.”
Those arrested included the president and council chairman, who were among more than 30 students who attended a meeting last month at which they passed a motion to mourn the “sacrifice” of the attacker, local media reported.
The arrests are the latest use of a strict national security law that Beijing imposed on semi-autonomous Hong Kong last year after months of anti-government protests in 2019. The demonstrations often led to clashes between demonstrators and police.
Authorities have said the man who stabbed the police officer in the shoulder on July 1 before killing himself had material in his home decrying the national security law as well as notes in which he declared his hatred for the police.
Police previously cautioned people against mourning the attacker, saying it was “no different from supporting terrorism.”
The union’s campus office has since been raided by national security police and the university has severed ties with the union and banned about 30 students who signed the motion from entering its premises.
“The motion is very shocking,” Senior Superintendent Steve Li told reporters.
“It tried to rationalise and glorify terrorism,” Li said, adding that it “encouraged people to attempt suicide” and it did not align with “our moral standards.”
Li said the four arrested on Wednesday were still in custody.
Hong Kong has been polarised since protesters took to the streets in 2019 demanding greater democracy and accountability for what activists called police violence, an accusation authorities have repeatedly rejected.
