Hong Kong’s prison authorities have been accused by opposition politicians of drawing a “new red line” after they barred 150 inmates arrested in relation to the social unrest over the past year from receiving an annual report from a fund established to help them. Opposition figures said the Correctional Services Department had for months been blocking political books, particularly those about the protest movement, from reaching their imprisoned recipients. Some letters written to the inmates had also gone missing, they added, and the department had denied most requests from Legislative Council and district council members to meet inmates. “We are worried that they are using political correctness to draw this new red line,” Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung said in a Wednesday briefing. “This is unheard of, and is totally unacceptable. We insist that the right to communicate continue. This is basic human rights.” At the same briefing, opposition lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun said the department had blocked on “security grounds” a report from the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund that had been sent to the 150 inmates who had received assistance from the organisation. The department did not elaborate on their reasons for withholding the report, Shiu said, but had asked the intended recipients to sign a consent form agreeing to have the materials destroyed. “We are worried that the sau zuk who did not cooperate and sign the forms will be punished,” he said, using the Cantonese slang term “hands and feet”, favoured by supporters of last year’s protest movement when referring to their brothers and sisters in arms. “The report only talks about how the money raised has been used, its history and its services. How could the report harm the security, order or discipline in prisons?” Shiu said he did not know of any prisoners who had signed the forms. Hong Kong schoolboy admits assaulting ‘government-supporting’ classmate In a written reply to an inquiry from the Post , the Correctional Services Department did not acknowledge withholding the report from the inmates, but said the law allowed it to intercept, return or destroy letters if it deemed them a threat to any individuals, or to prison security, order or discipline. The fund in question was set up in June last year at the start of the protest movement, sparked by the government’s efforts to pass a deeply unpopular bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, among other places. The administration eventually withdrew the bill, but not before the protests morphed into a wider movement calling for greater police accountability and universal suffrage. More than 10,000 people have been arrested over the course of months of sometimes-violent protests. The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund – established to help protesters in need – counts Canto-pop singer Denise Ho Wan-sze and retired Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun among its founders. It had raised a total of HK$140 million (US$18 million) as of May, with about HK$42 million left at its disposal. The money has been used to help more than 14,000 people pay for, among other things, legal fees and psychological counselling. The fund first sent its 18-page reports to the prisoners in August. After the reports were blocked, the fund removed two interviews with protesters that were contained in the originals, and mailed them again in September. The report, which mostly contained information about the fund’s services and future, was blocked again. Ex-Hong Kong leader posts names of teachers charged over protests “The people’s will to resist is undiminished,” the report said in one passage about the organisation’s outlook. “The fund cannot expect to lay down its responsibility in the short term.” Meanwhile, the opposition members maintained that inmates were having difficulty both sending and receiving mail. Lester Shum, a district councillor, said that under normal circumstances it should take just a few days for someone on the outside to receive a letter from a prisoner. Recently, however, it had taken as long as a month to get a letter from an inmate. In Hong Kong, any letters mailed from prisons must be read by the authorities first. Lawmaker Shiu said some letters mailed by opposition lawmakers to prisoners had also gone missing, and it was unclear why.