Hong Kong’s Civil Human Rights Front on Friday decided to cancel the march it had convened over the weekend after failing to get permission from the police to conduct it.
The Front is behind the biggest marches held in Hong Kong since the eruption of the political crisis in early June, sparked by the now-abandoned extradition bill, which would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent back to mainland China.
The police had banned the march and its organizers appealed the decision, albeit unsuccessfully, prompting them to finally cancel it “to protect all our participants and make sure that no one could bear legal consequences because of participating in the protests”, Efe news quoted CHRF Vice Convener Bonnie Leung as saying in a statement.
According to Leung, “it’s significant that they still decided to reject the application for the march to organizations like us. It’s a total violation of the basic human rights of the Hong Kong people (…) you cannot have confidence in this system”.
Earlier today, Three Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, including Joshua Wong who was one of the main leaders of the Umbrella Revolution in 2014, were arrested ahead of a proposed mass protest that has been banned by the police.
Last week, tens of thousands of people gathered on top of Hong Kong’s Lion Rock to shine lights across the city in solidarity with the city which has been shaken by anti-government protests for almost three months.
The city had appeared to have pulled back from a nosedive into violence, with the last serious clashes taking place a week and a half ago just after the city’s airport was paralysed by demonstrators.
The demonstrations were triggered by a controversial bill which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but have evolved into a call for wider democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms.