Hong Kong police detain pro-independence lawmakers after China protest

Hong Kong police have detained two former pro-independence lawmakers at their homes, amid a widening crackdown on dissenting voices in the former British colony.

Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus “Baggio” Leung, members of political party Youngspiration, were disqualified from the city’s legislature late last year after a dramatic anti-China protest during their swearing-in ceremony in October.

Both were arrested at 07:00 on Wednesday morning for alleged unlawful assembly, according to a statement on Yau’s Facebook page. A former assistant had also been taken to a police station, the notice said.

They are being interrogated over their attempt to retake their oaths, which were declared invalid, which saw the pair storm the legislative chambers and ended in scuffles with security guards, three of which were treated at hospital. Pro-Beijing lawmakers called the police for assistance at the time.

The two could face up to five years in jail if convicted under Hong Kong’s public order ordinance, or a fine and three years in prison.

The interrogations come as Hong Kong’s deeply unpopular outgoing leader, Leung Chun-ying, has taken unprecedented steps to quell dissent in the wake of a massive pro-democracy street protest in 2014.

Aside from ejecting Yau and Leung from office, Leung launched legal challenges against five additional pro-democracy lawmakers. Those cases have yet to be decided but one lawmaker, Nathan Law, quoted Gandhi and stated his opposition to the current president of the legislature at the end of his oath.

Earlier this month, and just one day after Leung’s successor was elected in a controversial election, police announced they would charge nine people involved in the 2014 democracy protests.

Two of those charged are lawmakers and any legislator jailed for more than a month could lose their seat.