Three arrested over HK legislature storming

Hong Kong, Sep 30 (IANS) Hong Kong police targeted high-profile figures of the anti-government protest movement, reportedly arresting three people on Monday in connection with the storming of the city’s legislature in July.

Television and film actor Gregory Wong Chung-yiu and pro-democracy activist Ventus Lau Wing-hong were taken to police stations after officers visited their homes in an early morning swoop, the South China Morning Post reported.Passion Times, a news site run by the localist party Civic Passion, also said one of its reporters, Ma Kai-chung, had been arrested.The arrests relate to a watershed episode in the anti-government protests, when demonstrators splintered off from a peaceful march on July 1 to break into the unguarded Legislative Council and vandalise the complex.

Pro-democracy group Demosisto said that police arrived at Wong’s home at around 7 a.m. and he was taken to Wan Chai police headquarters.Wong is a vocal supporter of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and was seen on a number of authorised protests in the past few months, including on July 1.An estimated 550,000 people marched on July 1, a date marking Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Plans were afoot for various anti-government demonstrations for National Day on Tuesday – when China will mark the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule – after pro-democracy group Civil Human Rights Front’s application for a march was rejected by police.Hong Kong has emerged from 17 straight weekends of protest, triggered by the now-withdrawn extradition bill, which would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent back to mainland China.

–IANSksk