‘Renowned scholar’ to help Hong Kong activists win court case in Japan over Tokyo Yasukuni Shrine protest, lawyers say
- Alex Kwok and Yim Man-wa have been held in Japan since being arrested for trespassing after they burned symbolic tablet of country’s wartime leader
- Academic in question cannot be named for fear Tokyo will deny him entry, source says
A source with knowledge of the matter said the scholar was well-known in Hong Kong, but could not be identified for fear Japanese authorities might deny him entry.
Alex Kwok Siu-kit and Yim Man-wa, of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, were arrested in December for trespassing at the Yasukuni Shrine and burning a symbolic ancestral tablet of Hideki Tojo, the country’s wartime prime minister.
The pair have been detained in Tokyo since their arrest. They were recently denied bail at the hearings of their trial on March 7 and 19 at Tokyo District Court, with the next session expected to be on May 22.
Their lawyers Keiichiro Ichinose and Naohiko Hasegawa were in Hong Kong from Wednesday to Friday to meet a group of local academics and peers, as well as the families of Kwok and Yim.
Ichinose said: “The prosecutor will be making his case on May 22, and then it will be our turn in June … A Hong Kong academic has agreed to testify and back up the pair’s reasons for protesting at the shrine.”