Two Hong Kong Lawmakers Arrested Over 2019 Protests

HONG KONG — The Hong Kong police arrested two pro-democracy lawmakers on Wednesday, their party said, in what appeared to be part of a growing crackdown on the city’s political opposition.

The lawmakers, Lam Cheuk-ting and Ted Hui, who are members of the city’s Legislative Council, were arrested because of their presence at an antigovernment protest in the Tuen Mun district on July 6, 2019, the Democratic Party said in a Facebook post.

Mr. Lam was also accused of rioting in connection with an attack in which he and antigovernment protesters, as well as other bystanders, were set upon by a mob in the Yuen Long subway station on July 21 last year, the party said.

A party representative said the lawmakers had been serving as mediators when the Tuen Mun protests, which began peacefully, took a violent turn.

A police spokeswoman would not immediately confirm the arrests or the nature of any charges, saying that the authorities would release details later.

Wu Chi-wai, chairman of the Democratic Party, said in a phone interview: “Lam Cheuk-ting has been turned from a plaintiff to a defendant, and Ted Hui has been arrested after carrying out the duties of a legislator. This is a completely unreasonable situation and should be condemned.”

The arrests came months after Beijing imposed a new security law in Hong Kong that pro-democracy activists fear would result in a loss of freedoms in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.

They also followed the biggest roundup of prominent opposition figures in recent memory. More than a dozen leading pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers in Hong Kong were arrested in April in connection with the protests that raged in the city last year.

The police also arrested and released the prominent pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai this month and raided the offices of his newspaper, Apple Daily, in a stark demonstration of what activists called China’s resolve to silence the opposition and bring the city to heel.

The Hong Kong government has barred 12 candidates, including moderate pro-democracy figures, from a legislative election that was postponed from September for a year.

City officials said the postponement had been made because of health concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, but opposition lawmakers said it was intended to avoid a resounding defeat of pro-Beijing candidates. The pro-democracy camp announced last Thursday that it would conduct a poll to decide whether to stage a boycott or continue serving for the extended term.

Local news outlets reported that 14 other people were arrested on Wednesday, 12 of them in connection to the subway attack last year.

During the attack, a group of men in white shirts entered the train station and struck unarmed commuters with wooden bats. Mr. Lam, 43, was quoted as saying in a New York Times video investigation that he had gone to the station to warn commuters about the dangerous surroundings, but was among those beaten and injured inside a train carriage.

Mr. Hui, 38, frequently served as a mediator in street protests that erupted in the past year, issuing warnings to the police over a loudspeaker and encouraging protesters to go home safely. He filed a lawsuit against a police officer in June over the 2019 shooting of a protester, but the case was blocked last week by Hong Kong’s secretary of justice.