Hong Kong national security police arrest councillor’s ex-aide for ‘assisting’ leader of now-defunct pro-independence group with US asylum bid
- Tim Luk, 34, accused of assisting an offender in relation to arrest of Tony Chung, leader of now-disbanded Studentlocalism
- Chung has been charged with secession under the national security law, money laundering, publishing seditious articles
Hong Kong national security police have arrested a district councillor’s former assistant on suspicion of helping the leader of a now-defunct pro-independence group with a failed asylum bid at the US consulate.
“Tim Luk has been arrested today by the national security agency for assisting fugitives. He has accepted legal assistance,” the disbanded group wrote on its Facebook page on Monday.
A police spokesman said officers arrested a 34-year-old surnamed Luk in Yuen Long for assisting an offender and that he had been detained for questioning. The Criminal Procedure Ordinance offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
Sha Tin district councillor Lo Yuet-chau said that Luk was his assistant until he resigned in April, and that he only knew about the arrest from the news.
Luk’s arrest is related to the case of Tony Chung Hon-lam, the 19-year-old former convenor of the now-defunct Studentlocalism group.
Chung was picked up by police’s National Security Department on October 27 at a Pacific Coffee outlet opposite the diplomatic compound in Central shortly after 8am.
He was scheduled to report to police that day following his first arrest under the national security law on July 29. For that arrest, Chung was released on conditional police bail barring him from travelling for six months, and his passport was confiscated.
