One of Hong Kong’s best-known activists was arrested by the city’s national security police on charges of contacting witnesses while on probation. Albert H71, headed the now disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which for more than three decades organized an annual candlelight vigil for victims of China’s bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The lawyer already faces up to ten years in prison on charges of “inciting subversion” under the national security law, which Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell widespread and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
The trial against him is ongoing but, last August, Ho was released on bail for health reasons after spending nearly a year in prison. Conditions included an obligation not to respond to any speech deemed a threat to national security. Any violation of the rules can lead to immediate arrest, as happened against Ho.