Hong Kong national security law: 3 more charged under Beijing-imposed legislation over alleged terrorist plot
- A 15-year-old boy is one of three suspects set to appear before West Kowloon Court on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism
- Police have arrested 14 people in total over an alleged plot to bomb courts, tunnels and streets in a series of attacks, six of whom have now been charged
Three more Hongkongers among the 14 arrested over an alleged terrorist plot were charged on Tuesday under the national security law, bringing the total number of people being prosecuted in the case to six.
The trio – a 15-year-old boy, 18-year-old woman, and 24-year-old man – are accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism, according to a police source, who said the charges were laid after officers sought advice from the Department of Justice.
The source said the 18-year-old, a student, was charged when officers found her in Yan Chai Hospital, where she had been admitted for an unspecified illness following her release on police bail. Officers were standing guard over the woman in the Tsuen Wan hospital on Tuesday evening.
All three suspects would appear before West Kowloon Court on Wednesday, the source added.
The 15-year-old boy, a secondary school student, was among five people arrested on Monday during a series of raids by officers from the force’s National Security Department.
According to the source, the four other suspects – two students aged 17 and 19, a property manager, 37, and a 28-year-old construction worker – would be granted police bail, pending further investigation.
The five suspects were the second group of people to be arrested within a week over the alleged terrorist plot by a pro-independence group known as “Returning Valiant”.
The female student and the 24-year-old man, a driver, were among nine people arrested on Monday last week in connection with what officers described as a plan to bomb courts, tunnels and streets in a series of attacks.
The nine Hongkongers included six secondary school pupils and a staff member at Baptist University, who was suspected of funding the plot.
In one of last week’s raids, officers stormed a room of a Tsim Sha Tsui guest house, which had been turned into a makeshift explosives factory.
Police seized from the room traces of explosives, two bottles of liquid chemicals and laboratory equipment needed to make triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable and powerful explosive known as TATP.
Three of the students arrested last week were charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist activities. The three schoolboys appeared at West Kowloon Court last Wednesday.
Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak threw out the defendants’ bail applications after the prosecution objected to their release. So scheduled the next hearing for September 1.
Since the enactment of the Beijing-imposed legislation on June 30 last year to ban acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, police have arrested more than 130 suspects under the law.
