This is really straight-up #PoliceState stuff. It's a direct attack on #HK civil society. PORI has carried out polls for years. While HK govt repeatedly has said there's nothing in Basic Law that authorizes or recognizes referenada, there's nothing that outlaws them either.
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Presumably, the crime police have used to obtain a search warrant is under suspicion of PORI conducting the primary in such a way as to breach the privacy of those polled. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine what 'crime' involving computers could be involved.
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It's more likely a convenient excuse to prevent the pro-democracy primary from taking place & to further criminalize #HK civil society. This represents an extremely drastic narrowing of freedoms in HK, a very clear alarm bell should be ringing worldwide.
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Other citizen-organized referenda have been held in #HK. Govt didn't like it but didn't ban them either. June 22-29, 2014, more than 800,000 participated in a referendum on universal suffrage, carried out by HKUPOP, PORI's predecessor. How times have changed for the worse.
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PORI's deputy head emphasizes #HK pro-democracy primary is going ahead as planned & the police raid shouldn't affect PORI's technical ability to carry out the vote. The computers seized aren't those used to carry out the vote. bit.ly/2APUxsa
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Au Nok-hin, one of the organizers of the #HK pro-democracy primary, says no one was arrested in the police raid, which apparently has to do with reports of a hack of PORI in which private information was obtained (ie, not related to the primary). PORI says the hack didn't occur.
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Following the police raid on PORI, in pro-democracy circles, all are sending out the clear message: BE SURE TO VOTE ON JULY 11 & 12! This is considered an incident of #WhiteTerror & resembles police 'discoveries' of explosives prior to HK freedom struggle protests in past year.
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Up to now it was unclear what the turnout for the pro-democracy primary would be. 1st there aren't that many more candidates than places available. 2nd the huge NSL-associated crackdown may have a deterrent effect (as intended). Now the q is: will the raid boost or lower turnout?
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Primary co-organizer Benny Tai's statement re police raid on PORI. To paraphrase: we live in dark times-holding a blank piece of paper is considered a crime. Important to stand up to White Terror & resist, not allowing ourselves to be intimidated. facebook.com/BennyTaiHK/pos
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All those who have organized polling stations in different areas of #HK are putting out messages to their local communities to assure them that the pro-democracy primary is going ahead.
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A more verbatim translation of Benny Tai's statement above: 'In a time when people are accused of violating the national security law for holding blank pieces of paper, we must not be intimidated but insist on living in reality. The pro-democracy primary has also been accused...
...of violating the national security law. At this time, we must insist on using our actions to resist such ridiculous things [as the use of NSL to ban everything]. As long as there are many people who are not intimidated & insist on using the referendum to refute lies...
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... we can still see a little light in this dark age and continue the spirit of resistance.' (Note: this translation isn't perfect but does give the gist of what Benny says.)
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About the crime, “access to a computer w criminal or dishonest intent”, under which police got a warrant to search PORI's office: it was originally conceived to apply to cyber fraud & hacking but has been broadened by #HK govt & police to become a catchall
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Police appear to have suspicion that PORI's own computers were used to hack PORI. A 2019 ruling by #HK Court of Final Appeal suggests the crime under which police obtained the search warrant doesn't apply to using one's own computer.
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Police could presumably argue that an employee of PORI w/out PORI's consent or someone else accessed a PORI computer to hack but on the surface, it appears police were just using any old crime to sabotage the pro-democracy primary.
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A related issue: how readily & easily judges have been granting search warrants to police. Atm there's a judicial review in #HK High Court on police accessing suspects' phones. Judge has temporarily banned them from doing so pending outcome of that review. news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/compon
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A major purpose of the NSL is to prevent the pro-democracy side from winning a majority in Legco. #CCP has stated they consider that a 'national security' issue, which just goes to show how anti-democracy they are.
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Btw now & Sept, expect many more attempts to sabotage the pro-democracy side's chances in Legco elections, a big 1 being disqualification of candidates. Legco's already rigged but rather than moving toward universal suffrage, as it's obligated to do by law, CCP's rigging it more.
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Remember pro-democracy candidates won over 80% of seats in last Nov's District Council elections. That freaked the #CCP out, as it realized pro-dems could crack the rigged system & control all but the executive branch from the inside out. That fear explains many CCP moves since.
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#HK govt didn't try to stop PORI's predecessor HKUPOP from carrying out the 2014 universal suffrage referendum but it got HKU to punish HKUPOP's head, an assistant & Benny Tai after on a technicality involving a donation for the poll. But it's never raided HKUPOP/PORI. Til now!
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In fact, the unstated but assumed reason PORI broke away from HKU & became fully independent is that it feared for its integrity in the new dispensation, #HK govt exerting much more political pressure on uni's after #UmbrellaMovement. But now the regime's come after it anyway.
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