Families of detained Hong Kong dozen protest on island near Chinese prison
Families of detained Hong
Kong dozen protest on island near Chinese prison
Family members and supporters of some of the 12 hiked to the peak of Kat O island in Hong Kong’s remote northeastern reaches, looking onto China’s high-tech boomtown of Shenzhen, and the Yantian district where the dozen are being held.
The group inflated blue and white balloons and wrote the names of the detainees on them, before releasing them into a leaden sky. They chanted for their “immediate safe return” while holding white banners reading “SAVE 12” and “Return Home”.
“I hope he can see the balloons and know we didn’t give up yet,” said the 28-year-old wife of detainee Wong Wai-yin
A Hong Kong marine police vessel later docked on the island, with police questioning and taking down the details of several reporters present.
Authorities have denied family and lawyers access to the 12, insisting they be represented by officially appointed lawyers. Last week seven detainees wrote handwritten letters to their family, but the group said in a statement that “they seem to have been compiled under duress”.
Eddie Chu, a former lawmaker who recently quit his post in protest against political suppression by authorities under the national security law, said it was important to keep fighting.
“We are so close to them, just a few kilometres in reality, but in fact it’s like ... something unreachable. So we need to have the balloons to do this for us.”
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