A former Hong Kong lawmaker who was imprisoned as part of a massive crackdown on dissent in China described her prison time as “Kafka-esque.”
After serving more than four years in prison for crimes against national security, Claudia Mo, a former journalist who co-founded the pro-democracy Civic Party, was released on Tuesday.
In a massive national security case involving the participation of 47 activists in an unofficial primary election, Mo, along with three other former politicians, admitted to conspiracy to subvert state power in 2022.
In the landmark case, which was criticized by Western governments and human rights organizations as an example of Beijing violating freedoms in the former British colony, 44 additional activists entered pleas of guilty or conviction.
Mo claimed on Friday that she had brushed up on her French while she was in detention and read more than 300 books as her first comments since her release.
“Thank you for your concern and concern regarding my release. The first few months of the program were almost Kafka-esque. Thanks to the social arrangements inside, Mo said in a Facebook post that I didn’t experience the two main incarceration traumas: loneliness and boredom.
Mo thanked her supporters, including retired Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was detained on suspicion of causing national security in 2022 and who ran press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders.
She said, “My thoughts are with my fellow-defendants who are still in custody.”
With the passage of a comprehensive Beijing-decreed national security law in 2020, Hong Kong was once home to a vibrant political opposition and a free-wheeling media scene.
Following the erupting of frequently violent mass antigovernment protests in 2019, Beijing and the Hong Kong government have praised the law for restoring order and order to the city.
According to local media reports, Hong Kong national security police detained the father and brother of the Hong Kong Democracy Council’s leader, Anna Kwok, on suspicion of handling her finances.
Source: Aljazeera
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