Joshua Wong, the face of the Hong Kong protest movement, was arrested on Thursday over an assembly last year deemed illegal by authorities.
Wong, 23, was released on bail a few hours after being detained during a routine visit to a Hong Kong police station. The pro-democracy activist is required to show up to this station twice a week as a condition of his bail related to previous charges.
Koo Sze-yiu, another activist, was also arrested.
Police confirmed that two male suspects, aged 23 and 74, had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in an illegal assembly. The arrest was reportedly in connection to a protest which took place on Oct. 5.
“Joshua is arrested when reporting to Central Police Station at about 1pm today. The arrest is related to participating in an unauthorized assembly on 5Oct last year. He is told to have violated the draconian anti-mask law as well,” said a tweet from Wong’s account.
Wong’s arrest was not related to a new “national security” law from China for the city, which has made illegal acts of subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. Instead, it was in relation to a preexisting statute. Wong has been brought up on similar charges before, and he has even served jail time.
Thursday’s arrest continues a pattern of recent crackdowns on pro-democracy activists by the Hong Kong government. Major figures of the Hong Kong protest movement have largely found themselves in limbo, arrested, then released on bail. Few have been sent to China for prosecution, as the “national security” law permits.
Some, such as Jimmy Lai, the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, believe that recent arrests, including his own, have been made chiefly to serve as a warning to those who oppose China’s control of the city.
