- Members of the council had previously passed a motion ‘appreciating the sacrifice’ of a man who stabbed a police officer before killing himself
- The students apologised and withdrew the resolution, but the university’s governing council said it would welcome an investigation
The city's national security police raided the University of Hong Kong student union office on Friday. Photo: SCMP/ Felix WongNational security police have raided the student union office at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as part of an investigation into student leaders who passed a motion “appreciating the sacrifice” of a man who stabbed an officer before killing himself.
Officers entered the office, which was closed and had the lights turned off, and cordoned off the area on the Pok Fu Lam campus at 3.15pm on Friday. No union members were seen outside.
HKU cuts ties with its student union after motion about July 1 attacker
The operation took place three days after the university severed all ties with the union, and strongly condemned the students’ “serious misconduct” for “blatantly whitewashing violence, challenging the moral bottom line of our society, and damaging the reputation and interests of the entire HKU community”.
Earlier, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, also the chancellor of HKU, had urged school management to take action, despite the fact the students had withdrawn the motion and apologised. Its executive committee eventually stepped down after being condemned by the Security Bureau and Education Minister.
A recap of what happened on July 1
The controversial motion, which was passed by the 30 representatives of the student union council last Wednesday, expressed “deep sadness” at the death of the lone attacker who stabbed a police constable on duty in Causeway Bay on July 1, before turning the knife on himself.
Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, chairman of the university’s governing council, previously said he would welcome a national security investigation into the student body, which he said was “basically supporting violence and the attack on July 1”.