#PrisonerRights
Solitary Confinement in HK Prison: 10 Days for Hugging, 7 Days for Sharing Books; Maximum Above UN Rule
#HumanRights #PoliceState
Source: Stand News; #Sept2
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Solitary Confinement in HK Prison: 10 Days for Hugging, 7 Days for Sharing Books; Maximum Above UN Rule
#HumanRights #PoliceState
Source: Stand News; #Sept2
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#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
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
#Court #RulebyLaw
Catch-22: Authority Rejects Reference Books Sent to Activist Lawyer Detained for Subversion, Due to Content about Subversion
#TonyeeChow #NSL #PrisonerRights #HongKongAlliance #HKASPDMC #June4th #TiananmenMassacre #SzetoWah
Source: Stand News #Oct23
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Catch-22: Authority Rejects Reference Books Sent to Activist Lawyer Detained for Subversion, Due to Content about Subversion
#TonyeeChow #NSL #PrisonerRights #HongKongAlliance #HKASPDMC #June4th #TiananmenMassacre #SzetoWah
Source: Stand News #Oct23
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#Court #RulebyLaw
Catch-22: Authority Rejects Reference Books Sent to Activist Lawyer Detained for Subversion, Due to Content about Subversion
Tonyee #ChowHangTung, the former vice-chairperson of Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (#HKASPDMC), is in detention on charges of inciting subversion of state power. A lawyer by trade, she intends to represent herself in her upcoming trial, and is preparing her own defense while in custody.
In an article on her Patreon published on October 23, she mentioned that her relatives and friends recently tried to send books about the late activist Szeto Wah and the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, but the Hong Kong Correctional Services (#HKCS) rejected them.
(Editor's note: Szeto Wah was the founder of the Hong Kong Alliance (#HKA) and was one of the most influential activists in Hong Kong who worked for decades to establish, preserve and protect Hong Kong people's democratic institutions, freedom and human rights.)
One of the books, she quoted an HKCS staff, "mentions behaviours of subverting state power". The decision could not be appealed, the staff added.
Chow questions whether the HKCS had assumed the role of the judge, making a fair trial impossible. The books are reference materials for her to prepare for her own defense in the trial, she said.
"If I can't have access to information about the Alliance and the June 4th incident, I would have no chance to find evidence to refute these accusations."
The Correctional Services have set up a perfect catch-22, she said of the arrangement. "This would guarantee the prosecution a win."
Source: Stand News #Oct23
https://thestandnews.page.link/Xwr8mUcpXtD6Q2MGA
#TonyeeChow #NSL #PrisonerRights #HongKongAlliance #HKASPDMC #June4th #TiananmenMassacre #SzetoWah
Catch-22: Authority Rejects Reference Books Sent to Activist Lawyer Detained for Subversion, Due to Content about Subversion
Tonyee #ChowHangTung, the former vice-chairperson of Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (#HKASPDMC), is in detention on charges of inciting subversion of state power. A lawyer by trade, she intends to represent herself in her upcoming trial, and is preparing her own defense while in custody.
In an article on her Patreon published on October 23, she mentioned that her relatives and friends recently tried to send books about the late activist Szeto Wah and the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, but the Hong Kong Correctional Services (#HKCS) rejected them.
(Editor's note: Szeto Wah was the founder of the Hong Kong Alliance (#HKA) and was one of the most influential activists in Hong Kong who worked for decades to establish, preserve and protect Hong Kong people's democratic institutions, freedom and human rights.)
One of the books, she quoted an HKCS staff, "mentions behaviours of subverting state power". The decision could not be appealed, the staff added.
Chow questions whether the HKCS had assumed the role of the judge, making a fair trial impossible. The books are reference materials for her to prepare for her own defense in the trial, she said.
"If I can't have access to information about the Alliance and the June 4th incident, I would have no chance to find evidence to refute these accusations."
The Correctional Services have set up a perfect catch-22, she said of the arrangement. "This would guarantee the prosecution a win."
Source: Stand News #Oct23
https://thestandnews.page.link/Xwr8mUcpXtD6Q2MGA
#TonyeeChow #NSL #PrisonerRights #HongKongAlliance #HKASPDMC #June4th #TiananmenMassacre #SzetoWah
Greta Thunberg Has a Message for Jailed Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong
The Swedish climate campaigner #GretaThunberg has written imprisoned Hong Kong activist #JoshuaWong a letter, in an effort to draw attention to the detention of the protest leader in Hong Kong.
"You are a big hero, we are with you always,” Thunberg's letter reads. “Stay strong and never give up. You are never alone. I really hope that we will be able to meet one day.”
#Save47 #PrisonerRights #PoliceState #HKProtest
Sources: Stand News, #Dec2; Vice, #Nov30 https://thestandnews.page.link/RQ6mMpQ6b1BechAz7
The Swedish climate campaigner #GretaThunberg has written imprisoned Hong Kong activist #JoshuaWong a letter, in an effort to draw attention to the detention of the protest leader in Hong Kong.
"You are a big hero, we are with you always,” Thunberg's letter reads. “Stay strong and never give up. You are never alone. I really hope that we will be able to meet one day.”
#Save47 #PrisonerRights #PoliceState #HKProtest
Sources: Stand News, #Dec2; Vice, #Nov30 https://thestandnews.page.link/RQ6mMpQ6b1BechAz7
Hong Kong prisons work to compel loyalty to China among young activists
Full article from Washington Post #Jun08
#AntiELAB #PrisonerRights #Deradicalization #Brainwashing
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Full article from Washington Post #Jun08
#AntiELAB #PrisonerRights #Deradicalization #Brainwashing
Read more
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Hong Kong prisons work to compel loyalty to China among young activists
The day begins with goose-stepping. In the prison yards of juvenile facilities across Hong Kong, young men and women practice the form of marching used by the Chinese military, kicking their legs up high as guards yell out commands.
In their mud-colored uniforms, the prisoners look almost indistinguishable from military recruits. But before they were detained, these inmates were foot soldiers in Hong Kong’s fight for greater democratic freedoms.
Arrested for their involvement in the 2019 mass protests that saw almost a third of the population take to the streets, the detainees are now the latest subjects in China’s decades-long experiment in political control. The goal is to “deradicalize” them, echoing efforts honed by Beijing from the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters up to the forced detention and reeducation of Uyghur Muslims, though the Hong Kong version is not on the industrial scale of the repression in Xinjiang.
The deradicalization program includes pro-China propaganda lectures and psychological counseling that leads to detainees confessing to holding extreme views, and it is accompanied by a system of close monitoring and punishment, including solitary confinement, inside the juvenile facilities, former prisoners and guards said. As of April 30, 871 juvenile inmates had participated in the program, the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) said, about 70 percent of them charged in connection with the 2019 protests. Some are as young as 14.
Hong Kong officials have refused to provide any specifics about what deradicalization — or “targeted rehabilitation,” as they call it — entails. But The Washington Post spoke to 10 former juvenile prisoners and three prisoners formerly held in adult facilities, all arrested in connection with the 2019 protests, as well as two former employees at the CSD who described the program and how it has evolved over the past year. All spoke under the condition of anonymity or only wanted their first name used for fear of repercussions, including additional prison time or retaliation from the authorities.
The ultimate objective, according to a former prison guard, is to create a feeling of hopelessness among prisoners, deterring the youngest former protesters from activism or even seeing a future in Hong Kong.
“It was explicitly said to us that by the end of their sentence, the goal is to ensure the desire of these inmates to continue doing political stuff is less and less, and that they instead look for ways to leave Hong Kong,” said the former prison guard.
One former prisoner, Leo, said: “What really slowly wears down your will to fight is the everyday living in prison … [being] targeted, oppressed, silenced.”
“This is the brainwashing that happens 24 hours a day,” he said.
Full article from Washington Post #Jun08:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/deradicalization-hong-kong-democracy-activists/
#AntiELAB #PrisonerRights #Deradicalization #Brainwashing
The day begins with goose-stepping. In the prison yards of juvenile facilities across Hong Kong, young men and women practice the form of marching used by the Chinese military, kicking their legs up high as guards yell out commands.
In their mud-colored uniforms, the prisoners look almost indistinguishable from military recruits. But before they were detained, these inmates were foot soldiers in Hong Kong’s fight for greater democratic freedoms.
Arrested for their involvement in the 2019 mass protests that saw almost a third of the population take to the streets, the detainees are now the latest subjects in China’s decades-long experiment in political control. The goal is to “deradicalize” them, echoing efforts honed by Beijing from the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters up to the forced detention and reeducation of Uyghur Muslims, though the Hong Kong version is not on the industrial scale of the repression in Xinjiang.
The deradicalization program includes pro-China propaganda lectures and psychological counseling that leads to detainees confessing to holding extreme views, and it is accompanied by a system of close monitoring and punishment, including solitary confinement, inside the juvenile facilities, former prisoners and guards said. As of April 30, 871 juvenile inmates had participated in the program, the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) said, about 70 percent of them charged in connection with the 2019 protests. Some are as young as 14.
Hong Kong officials have refused to provide any specifics about what deradicalization — or “targeted rehabilitation,” as they call it — entails. But The Washington Post spoke to 10 former juvenile prisoners and three prisoners formerly held in adult facilities, all arrested in connection with the 2019 protests, as well as two former employees at the CSD who described the program and how it has evolved over the past year. All spoke under the condition of anonymity or only wanted their first name used for fear of repercussions, including additional prison time or retaliation from the authorities.
The ultimate objective, according to a former prison guard, is to create a feeling of hopelessness among prisoners, deterring the youngest former protesters from activism or even seeing a future in Hong Kong.
“It was explicitly said to us that by the end of their sentence, the goal is to ensure the desire of these inmates to continue doing political stuff is less and less, and that they instead look for ways to leave Hong Kong,” said the former prison guard.
One former prisoner, Leo, said: “What really slowly wears down your will to fight is the everyday living in prison … [being] targeted, oppressed, silenced.”
“This is the brainwashing that happens 24 hours a day,” he said.
Full article from Washington Post #Jun08:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/deradicalization-hong-kong-democracy-activists/
#AntiELAB #PrisonerRights #Deradicalization #Brainwashing