Hong Kong national security law: 3 teenagers among 5 arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences
Four male suspects and girl detained on Monday morning in Kowloon Tong, Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong and Shau Kei Wan
Suspects all believed to be members of pro-independence group ‘Returning Valiant’
Suspects all believed to be members of pro-independence group ‘Returning Valiant’
National security police arrested five people on Monday morning.
Photo: Warton Li
Hong Kong’s national security police have arrested five more people, including three teenagers, in connection with an alleged bomb plot by a pro-independence group last week.
Four male suspects, aged 15 to 37, and a 17-year-old girl were detained in a series of raids on Monday. A force insider said the arrests took place in Kowloon Tong, Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong and Shau Kei Wan.
The suspects were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit terrorism under the national security law, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The source said all five – three school pupils, a property manager and a construction worker – were suspected members of “Returning Valiant”, a pro-independence group.
“We believe two of the students, aged 15 and 19, were recruited with monetary rewards to plant bombs in the alleged plot,” the source said. “The third student, the 17-year-old schoolgirl, and the 37-year-old manager are suspected of funding the plot.”
The source said the force believed the construction worker, 28, was responsible for helping the group buy bomb-making materials.
As of Monday evening, the suspects were being held for questioning at different police stations and none had been charged. According to the force, further arrests were possible. Investigators escorted the property manager to his office in the Emperor Group Centre on Hennessy Road in Wan Chai for a search at about 5.30pm.
A week ago, police arrested nine people, including six secondary school pupils accused of being members of Returning Valiant, over an alleged terrorist plot to bomb courts, tunnels and streets in a series of attacks.
Police said at the time officers had carried out a number of raids, including at a Tsim Sha Tsui guest house that had been turned into a makeshift explosives factory by a well-organised group that was in the final stages of preparing the attacks.
The suspects last Monday included six teenagers – four boys and two girls, aged between 15 and 19 – and a staff member at Baptist University, who was suspected of funding the plot.
At the scene, police seized a trace quantity of explosives, two bottles of liquid chemicals and laboratory equipment needed to make triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable and powerful explosive known as TATP.
The university employee was believed to have provided funding, and a source said police had frozen HK$600,000 (US$77,240) in his bank accounts. An insider identified him as a public relations officer working at the university’s School of Continuing Education.
His wife, who worked as an administrative staff member at a secondary school, was also arrested, the source said, adding the couple had previously driven protesters home from demonstrations.
Police said they believed other financial backers were still at large, and were hunting them.
Last week, police said the group was particularly interested in recruiting secondary school pupils who were already thinking of leaving the city for good. According to the force, the gang used monetary rewards and escape plans to lure youths to engage in the bomb plots.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Monday said the alleged plot showed there were people instigating young students to commit crimes and that the situation was worrying.
She said national security risks and a sense of lawlessness remained after the 2019 social unrest, urging adults to care for and guide youngsters more.
Three students arrested last week over the alleged plot were charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist activities. The three schoolboys appeared at West Kowloon Court on Wednesday.
Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak threw out the defendants’ bail applications after the prosecution objected to their release.
So, a magistrate selected by the city’s leader to hear security law proceedings, scheduled the next hearing for September 1 to allow for further police inquiries.
Since Beijing imposed the law just over a year ago to ban acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, police have arrested more than 130 suspects.
Bullyland now scared of teenagers and schoolboys as young as 15?
ReplyDelete"Recruited with monetary rewards to plant bombs"....? That means they are not bombers, they were paid.....by whom....?
"..there were people instigating young students to commit crimes"....? are there hidden hands manipulating the minds of innocent young teens?
Schoolboys with arrested for having "two bottles of liquid chemicals and laboratory equipment" reminds me of this incident that happened in KLCC 5 years ago......Islamic State kot.....ha ha ha....it was just naughty, careless schoolboys leaving their heavy schoolbags on the floor and sneaking off to watch a movie in the shopping mall.
QUOTE
The Straits Times
2 suspected explosives at KLCC detonated, but Malaysia's police chief says they were souvenirs left by students
Shannon Teoh
Malaysia Bureau Chief
MAR 9, 2016
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian police detonated two suspected explosive devices found at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Wednesday (March 9), next to the Petronas Twin Towers, but later said they were experimental lights left behind by students.
National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar clarified that the two glass jars found were not home-made bombs as believed earlier, but souvenirs given to visitors to a science museum in the Suria KLCC shopping mall.
“The experimental lights in bottles called STARLAB by Petrosains were given to school students as souvenirs,” he tweeted on Wednesday night (March 9).
According to district police, cleaners at the convention centre’s Aquaria aquatic museum found “suspicious bottles” at about 5.15pm and duly informed security personnel, who took the glass bottles out into the open in front of the main entrance.
Police rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area at 6pm before a bomb squad, using a robot unit, destroyed the bottles two hours later, local police said in a statement.
The incident caused alarm as police and government officials had recently warned that supporters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist network are planning attacks and kidnappings in Malaysia, especially at tourist hotspots like KLCC.
UNQUOTE
Blurred mfer, these teenagers and schoolboys r impressionable blur-sotongs!
DeleteMeme-ed ignorance & blind indoctrination carry no age limit!
Moreover, they have been caught carrying dangerous materials during raids.
What more do u want?
When the carnage starts!
Sounds like these people are already convicted guilty.
ReplyDeleteHong Kong's rule of law is dead.
Now, u can even read & understand a statement properly!
DeleteOr u just want to fart?
Cowards ! Using kids to do the dirty ! Maybe these terrorists think that the children caught in the act will be spared heavy sentencing. And of course these kids are easier to be brainwashed to kill and destroy using bombs, money being such an attractive incentive and a promise to escape and emigrate to their beloved pommie land and the great Uncle Satan land of the 'free and brave'.
ReplyDeleteSame MO used by those Pro Dem politicians in 2019 using students to riot on the streets and commit acts of violence on bystanders, with that rotten tycoon Jimmy fuckery Lai leading the band, openly and brazenly calling out to Uncle Satan to " save us " and " punish my country with sanctions " ! Too bad for this traitor that the law finally caught up with him...hopefully he gets more charges and be locked away for many years to come.