Sawt Falasteen - Hong Kong arrests two for allegedly selling 'seditious' material

Police only identified the suspects as a 33-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man, but local media reported that the two were the proprietors of the independent bookstore Hunter -- and said the woman is former pro-democracy district councillor Leticia Wong.

The pair were suspected of displaying "The Troublemaker", a biography of Lai, in the shop, broadcaster TVB reported.

The two people arrested "are suspected of displaying items with seditious intent and selling publications with seditious content inside the shop, including materials inciting hatred against the... government, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies", police said.

They are also suspected of receiving remittances from "foreign political organisations", police said, adding that officers had seized seditious books and documents from their shop and residence.

Photos taken by local media outlet The Collective showed officers removing lyrics of a Cantonese song -- a veiled reference to huge and sometimes violent democracy protests in 2019 -- from the shop window.

The duo have been detained for investigation under a homegrown national security law passed in 2024, which came in addition to a law imposed by Beijing after pro-democracy protests paralysed the financial hub in 2019.

They face up to seven years in prison for acting with "seditious intention" and up to 14 years in prison for money laundering.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the arrests "show the absurdity of Hong Kong's national security regime: even selling books and organising talks is now considered 'seditious'".

"As Beijing tightens control over the city, what is lost is Hong Kong's openness and diversity of thoughts and opinion," Pearson said in a statement.

"These arrests aren't about public safety -- they're about censorship and fear," Mark Clifford, author of "The Troublemaker", a biography of Jimmy Lai, told AFP.

"When authorities target booksellers for carrying a biography, they're sending a message that even peaceful ideas and documented facts are no longer safe. A government that fears a book fears the truth."

In March this year, officials arrested four employees from another bookstore, Book Punch, for allegedly selling seditious publications, including a biography of Lai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for national security crimes earlier this year.

As of the start of June, Hong Kong has arrested 401 people for various national security crimes and convicted 182 of them.

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST