#TiffanyYuen:

"I am alone, but not lonely.

I have prepared to be 'disqualified' while taking this campaign photo. Fellow supporters of the Movement and I wanted to say this election is not about the candidates. The authorities may block my way to the #LegCo, but this 'seat' is never our plan.

You can bar me, the 12 of us, or even more tomorrow, but you can't stop the Movement.

The aim of our '35+ plan' is to force the CCP to show its real color, or burn together, otherwise. Now, the CCP has made a move by running to the fire.

Don't be shocked or panic.

The resistance will not end. The deadlock starts to break.

The #DQ might exceed our expectation, but it also reflects the authorities can’t tolerate any dissent from any fraction.

We'll need to think about our strategy for the future. As long as we stick together, we'll continue the fight against the tyranny, regardless of how many of us may fall.

DQ is not the end, but the start of breaking the stalemate."

Source: Tiffany Yuen's Facebook #Jul30

#OpinionArticle #PoliticalOppression
"Putting Me on Trial is Putting Freedom of Press On Trial"

//On June 2, 1986, during Taiwan's "White Terror", Police arrested and jailed Cheng Nan-jung, who founded Freedom Era Weekly on the slogan "100 percent freedom of speech". He was jailed without trial for 8 months. At the time, he said, "Putting me on trial is putting freedom of press on trial."

Today, Jimmy Lai, the founder of Apple Daily and Next Digital, along with his sons and several senior staff, were accused for "colluding with a Foreign Country or with External Elements to Endanger National Security", and arrested under the National Security Law. 200 police officers searched the Apple Daily headquarters. Police denied journalists from multiple media outlets from providing coverage inside the building, insinuating that they would "affect or obstruct police work".//

Source: Tiffany Yuen's Facebook
#Aug10 #WhiteTerror #NationalSecurityLaw #FreedomOfPress #JimmyLai #AppleDaily #NextMedia #TiffanyYuen

#DistrictCouncil #PoliticalOppression
District Councilor blasted new meeting guidlines calling it absurd and ridiculous

Source: Tiffany Yuen's Facebook
#Aug13 #TiffanyYuen #FailedState

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24287

#DistrictCouncil #PoliticalOppression
Pro-Democracy District Councilor blasts Government's Meeting Guidleines, calling it Absurd and Ridiculous

Tiffany Yuen Ka-wai, a district councilor who came second in the Hong Kong Island constituency in the primaries organized by the democracy front in July 2020, condemned the Home Affairs Bureau's internal guidelines for their staff. Yuen wrote the following on her Facebook:

"Councilors are empowered by the voters to monitor the government. The SAR government has made many wrong decisions in the past. Our questions are intended to look deep down into the root-cause of the problems.

With these new Guidelines implemented, raising a request for Food, Environmental and Health Department to increase the number of times to sweep the street could be deemed criticizing government; requesting the Highways Department to review non-slip steel sand material could also be criticizing government; and asking the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to plant more trees could be too.

Such ridiculous guidelines can only be issued by the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Ever since the pro-democracy camp won a landslide-victory in the District Council last year, the Home Affairs Department has been oppressing district councilors in many ways. Leaving a meeting in their own will is extremely irresponsible.

So long as I am still in this office, I will perform my duty as a district councilor to scrutinize government policy, irrespective of these absurd guidelines."

*********
The guideline includes the following:

1. To ensure the rational discussion of livelihood issues and apolitical social events in District Councils, without criticizing the government and protesting in any extreme manner.

2. The Home Affairs Bureau can make direct recommendations when handling controversial issues or ultra vires motions, or seek opinion from the Secretary for Justice

3. District officers and government representatives are not required to attend meetings that cover ultra vires items

4. If the Home Affairs Bureau are informed of potentially controversial issues, cross-departmental teams can be set up to address the issue, when necessary.

5. If district councilors address government officials with offensive language, officials can leave the meeting.

Source: Tiffany Yuen's Facebook
#Aug13 #TiffanyYuen #FailedState

#Breaking #MassArrest #NationalSecurityLaw
Benny Tai, Robert Chung, and fifty more Democratics arrested this morning for inciting subversion of state power through arranging ‘35+ Primary Election’

The #DemocraticParty suggested a ’35+ #PrimaryElection scheme’, hoping to secure over half of the seats in the #2019LegislativeCouncilElection, yet the election was cancelled later. The #NationalSecurityDepartment of Hong Kong Police Force arrested around #50Democratics.

At around 6 in the morning, the Democratic Party stated on their Facebook that ex #LegCoMember #JamesTo Kun-sun, #AndrewWan and #LamCheukTing were arrested at their homes for #IncitingSubversinoOfStatePower through suggesting the ’35+ Primary Election scheme’. #GaryFan Kwok-wai from the #NeoDemocrats was also arrested, and he stated on his personal Facebook that ’The Charge is joining the Primary Election’.

Social Movement Activist #VentusLau Wing-hong, #JimmySham Tsz-kit , ex-Legislative Council Member #LeungKwokHung, #EddieChu Hoi-dick, #WuChiWai, #RoyKwong Chun-yu, #HelenaWong Pik-wan, #AlvinYeung Ngok-kiu, District Councillor of the Southern District #TiffanyYuen, ex- #theStandNews reporter #GwynethHo Kwai-lam, District Councillor of Central and Western District #FergusLeung, jurisprudent #BennyTai Yiu-ting, and the Chair of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (#PORI) #RobertChung Ting-yiu were also arrested.

Source: Apple Daily, Stand News; #Jan06

https://hk.appledaily.com/breaking/20210106/JSJPIIZ6WNGBZHMPVDF76T3ODM/

#Court #PoliticalPrisoner
#JoshuaWong: Don't Let the World Change Us

Source: Stand News #Mar30

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/29567

#Court #PoliticalPrisoner
#JoshuaWong: Don't Let the World Change Us

In almost 2 years since the Anti-ELAB movement broke out in 2019, Hong Kong's representative figures of the pro-democracy "resistance" camp are either in jail or in exile.

Among them, former lawmaker #EddieChu, former journalist #GywnethHo, district councillors #LesterShum and #TiffanyYuen have been detained and denied bail since late February 2021. They are among the 47 pro-democracy activists arrested for joining the primary election in 2020.

Former chair of #Demisisto #NathanLaw and former spokesman for the Hong Kong Higher Institutions International Affairs Delegation (#HKIAD) #SunnyCheung have to sever ties with their family in Hong Kong and live in exile.

On March 30, 2021, district councillor #JannelleLeung and activist Joshua Wong, alongside Shum and Yuen, were trialed for taking part in an "unauthorised assembly" on #June4 in Victoria Park in 2020.

They were among 24 pro-democracy figures who were charged for participating in the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the victims of the 1989 #TiananmenSquareMassacre in Beijing. The vigil was for the first time banned by the Hong Kong police in 2020. It is still uncertain that whether the annual rally could be held in 2021.

The four pro-democracy activists admitted to joining the rally and were remanded in custody. In the courtroom, Joshua Wong yelled, "Even if we cannot change the world, don't let the world change us."

The 24-year-old Wong is currently serving his sentence for surrounding the police headquarters during the #AntiELAB protest, while being additionally charged with other offences connecting to the primary election and June 4th #vigil.

Source: Stand News #Mar30
https://bit.ly/333JeXD

#PoliticalSuppression #PoliceState #47Democrats

#PoliticalPersecution #PoliceState
HK Pro-democracy Activist punished in solitary confinement for arbitrary offences

On July 20, 2021, Former Councilor of Southern District, #TiffanyYuen Ka-wai, had finished serving her 4-month jail term after taking part in the June 4 vigil at Victoria Park in 2020, which was banned by the police for the first time in 30 years.

At the end of her prison term, she was sent to the Lo Wu Correctional Facility to continue to be detained for charges linked to the pro-democracy camp primaries of Legislative Council election in 2020.

At the detention cell, she hugged several other pro-democracy activists also being detained.

Soon afterwards, Yuen was penalized by the authorities for “making physical contact with other prisoners” and placed in solitary confinement for 10 days.

Yuen’s friend Wong Li-li told reporters that there was no enforcement guidelines in the Correctional Services Department decision. Wong explained that “physical contacts” occur naturally in prison routines, condemning that the Department’s decision is arbitrary and targeting unfairly at Yuen.

Look into the Prison Rules in Hong Kong for offences against prison discipline, it certainly didn’t consist of making “physical contact with other prisoners," Wong said.

#HKProtest #NationalSecurityLaw #WhiteTerror #FailedState

Source: InMedia; #Jul24

https://bit.ly/3kSnwA6

#PoliticalSuppression #PoliticalActivists #Prison

#PrisonerRights
Solitary Confinement in HK Prison: 10 Days for Hugging, 7 Days for Sharing Books; Maximum Above UN Rule

"You stay in bed all day. For seven days straight. You can only go to the toilet, and it's right next to the bed."

Stand News interviewed four former prisoners who had faced solitary confinement in Hong Kong's prisons. In their experience, this punishment was handed out often, and the experience is long and painful. As sleeping pills are not permitted in prisons, they could only take painkillers to help themselves sleep.

In July, news broke that pro-democracy district councilor #TiffanyYuen had endured 10 days of solitary confinement as punishment for hugging a fellow prisoner. Lawyer and chairperson of Hong Kong Alliance #ChowHangTung, who was also in prison at the time, also faced the same punishment for 3 days for sharing postage stamps with other inmates. Others had been penalized for 7 days for exchanging books and photographs, or 3 days for sharing chocolate.

What is the metric for such punishments? According to Correctional Services' response to Stand News: "Any prisoner who commit offenses against prison discipline as described under clause 61 of the Prison Rules [1] will be prosecuted by the Services according to the rules. If a disciplinary hearing determines that the prisoner have violated the rules, then the Services will impose punishments according to clause 63 of the Prison Rules. If the prisoner disagrees with the ruling, they may appeal it according to established procedures."

The prison rules of Hong Kong sets an upper limit for solitary confinement at 28 days. However, according to the United Nations' "Nelson Mandela Rules" - adopted in 2015 and named in honor of the former president of South Africa and activist for human rights, equality, democracy, and peace - prisons should prohibit solitary confinement longer than 15 days.

Furthermore, the UN Committee Against Torture had published a report in 2016, in which the committee expressed concern with the maximum length of solitary confinement in Hong Kong prisons. It also called to attention the rule of "removal from association" - forbidding prisoners from associating with others on vague grounds such as "for the maintenance of good order or discipline or in the interests of a prisoner".

Though the report made several recommendations to Hong Kong for clarifying the rules and bringing the limits of punishments to be closer to the Nelson Mandela Rules, prisoners released this year still reports that solitary confinement remains a common punishment. According to data from Correctional Services, there were 3181 instances of solitary confinement handed out among 14689 prisoners in 2019. This number had been above 3000 every year since 2016.

The Correctional Services did not comment when asked if it had implemented the UN committee's suggestions, and if it would reduce or abolish solitary confinement as a punishment.

[1] Cap. 234A Prison Rules: https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap234A!en-zh-Hant-HK?xpid=ID_1438402870147_001&INDEX_CS=N

#HumanRights #PoliceState

Source: Stand News; #Sept2
https://www.thestandnews.com/society/%E5%9B%9A%E6%AC%8A%E6%B0%B4%E9%A3%AF%E6%88%BF%E7%9B%B8%E6%93%81%E5%9B%9A%E4%B8%83%E6%97%A5-%E6%8F%9B%E6%9B%B8%E5%9B%B0%E5%8D%81%E5%A4%A9-%E7%8D%A8%E5%9B%9A%E6%9C%80%E9%95%B728%E6%97%A5-%E8%B6%85%E5%87%BA%E8%81%AF%E5%90%88%E5%9C%8B%E8%A6%8F%E5%89%87

Chris Tang, the Secretary for Security who was the former Commissioner of Police, describes a bar of chocolate or a hairpin can endanger national security and so starts the investigation on former district councillor Tiffany Yuen Ka-Wai.

#ChrisTang #TiffanyYuen #NationalSecurity #GoHKgraphics

#47Democrats #PrimaryElection #SubvertionofStatePower

#LawrenceLauWaiChung said, "Not guilty, sir," elegant as usual.

#LamCheukTing almost roared, "I don't plead guilty!"

#LeungKwokHung (a.k.a. #LongHair) said, "[I'm] Innocent. Plead not guilty."

#WinnieYuWaiMing raised her right hand and stated, "Not guilty."

The magistrate, Peter Law Tak Chuen, referred the 17 defendants to the High Court for trial.

The other 29 of them chose to plead guilty. Among them, #TiffanyYuenKaWai, #FrankieFungTatChuen, #CarolNgManYee, #GaryFanKwokWai and #HendickLuiChiHang, refused to agree all facts of the cases.

Everyone has a different way of pleading guilty:

#TiffanyYuen whispered, "Plead ah! (認呀！)."

#FergusLeungFongWai said with a tone of no choice, "Plead guilty lo! (認囉！)."

#FrankieFung said in Cantonese, "I plead guilty," then repeated in Mandarin, "I plead guilty, I know I was wrong,” causing the auditorium to laugh and #KwokKaKi thumbs up with a smile.

#LauChakFung just left his seat for the washroom, and somebody said, "he will plead guilty even in the toilet."

#JoshuaWong slowly spoke out, "Plead~ guilty~."

#LiKaTat shouted, "PG!"

#TamTakChi (a.k.a. #FastBeat) confidently said while brushing his hair, "I am 'handsome'" [Handsome has a similar sound as "plead" in Cantonese]

#WuChiWai followed, "Plead ah! (認呀！)," looking at #TamTakChi, and they both laughed.

#SamCheungHoSum declared, "I plead, I plead, I plead (認啊認啊認啊)" in one go.

#VentusLauWingHong said, "For the love of my country, I plead guilty," raising uproar among defendants.

Law, the magistrate, asked whether the 26 defendants agreed with the case.

#AuNokHin stood up at that moment and expressed heavily, "I confirmed the case, and I would like to apologise to all defendants because I could not ensure the election was legal." He then slightly bowed to the defendants.

#AndrewChiuKaYin also apologized, but expressionless, "I confirm the overall case, and I apologise to everyone who helped in the pre-election." Some defendants jeered, "What are you saying (講呢啲)?"

#TamTakChi (a.k.a #FastBeat) shouted as usual, "I agree with the plot!", followed by a severe facial expression, "I agree, I agree (同意啊、同意啊)," which brought laughter to the courtroom. He then turned around, spoke to #ClaudiaMo, "Yes, excellent!" and raised his arms to the air with thumbs up.

#LeslieShumOFai interrupted, "I am not a comedy actor."

The magistrates confirmed whether Tam agreed with the entire case. He answered, "Yes, then I agree with the full case." Law raises the question once more, "You agree?" "The plot? Yes." Tam replied

It is understood that there will be no jury at the trial. This case will be handled by three designed judges, as in the case of #TongYingKit. It reminds us of #OwenChowKaShing, who did not plead guilty and yelled at the court after the restriction on reporting was lifted, "Trial without a jury is unjust."

This was probably the most potent conclusion in West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts for a year and a half.

Source: InMedia #Aug18

https://www.inmediahk.net/node/%E7%A4%BE%E9%81%8B/%E3%80%90%E5%88%9D%E9%81%B847%E4%BA%BA%E6%A1%88%E3%80%91%E8%A8%98%E4%B8%80%E6%AC%A1%E9%95%B7%E5%9B%9B%E5%A4%A9%E7%9A%84%E7%AD%94%E8%BE%AF-%E6%9C%89%E4%BA%BA%E8%AA%AA%E7%AC%91%E3%80%81%E6%9C%89%E4%BA%BA%E8%87%B4%E6%AD%89?utm_source=dable