Hong Kong police have arrested a veteran pro-democracy politician who was out on bail for medical treatment after spending more than a year in detention on a subversion charge.
Albert Ho, 71, once led the city’s largest opposition group, the Democratic party, and runs his own law firm. Police handcuffed Ho and took him away from his home in a vehicle on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said.
Ho had been charged with inciting subversion under a national security law that China imposed on the former British territory in 2020, and pleaded not guilty.
He was granted bail in August 2022, with media reporting at the time he needed medical treatment for lung cancer.
The judge who granted bail told Ho that if he committed any acts endangering national security “his bail will be revoked and he won’t be able to receive any kind of private medical care”.
This month, police arrested a veteran union leader, Elizabeth Tang, after she visited her pro-democracy activist husband in a high security prison. She was charged with collusion with foreign forces and granted bail.
Ho’s brother, Frederick Ho, was also arrested in connection with that case.
Albert Ho is accused with two others, Lee Cheuk-yan, 66, and Chow Hang-tung, 38, of inciting subversion of state power under the national security law, given their leadership roles in a now-disbanded group called the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula granting autonomy. Some western countries say China is undermining those freedoms with the 2020 national security law.
Chinese and Hong Kong officials deny that and say foreign interference is endangering the financial hub’s stability and prosperity.
Neither police nor Ho’s law firm immediately responded to requests for comment.
