Hong Kong civil rights group unlikely to survive police investigation into funding, activities, analysts say
- Force investigating Civil Human Rights Front cash flow, failure to register as society, and letter to UN High Commission
- Umbrella group in no-win situation according to insiders and analysts
Police have given the Civil Human Rights Front until next Wednesday to provide information on its funding, expenses, and related bank accounts, and for its reasons not registering with the government under the Societies Ordinance.
Formed in 2002, the front was a driving force behind a July 1 march a year later in which hundreds of thousands of people protested against a national security bill which was eventually shelved.
Since then, the umbrella group, which once included around 50 opposition parties and pressure groups, has made the July 1 march an annual event.
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Hundreds arrested, thousands protest in Hong Kong during first day under new national security law
Johnson Yeung Ching-yin, the former convenor of the front in 2013 and 2014, said police had never questioned why the group was not registered under the Societies Ordinance, and had allowed it to go ahead with many major rallies.
