Prominent Hong Kong Democracy Activist Arrested

A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist was arrested Tuesday just months after he was released from prison for violating the city’s draconian national security law.

Reuters news agency says 71-year-old Albert Ho was handcuffed and taken away from his home in a vehicle, according to a witness.

Albert Ho once led the pro-democracy Hong Kong Alliance before he was arrested in 2021 and charged with inciting subversion. He spent more than a year in jail before he was released last August for medical treatment, according to Reuters.

Agence France Presse says it learned from an anonymous source that Ho was arrested and charged for “allegedly interfering with witnesses” while on bail.

Albert Ho’s brother Frederick was arrested earlier this month for in connection with the arrest of labor rights activist Elizabeth Tang on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. They have since been released on bail.

Hundreds of pro-democracy activists have been convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms since the Chinese legislature approved the law in 2020 in response to massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy demonstrations the year before. Under the law, anyone believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.