Political prisoners suffer ‘physical and sexual violence’

Political prisoners in Hong Kong have suffered “systemic” physical and sexual violence in jail, a report released earlier this week has revealed. 

The 91-page study published by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation alleged a system of abuse. It also included round-the-clock monitoring and political indoctrination courses such as Chinese Communist Party classes.

“Hong Kong’s prisons have become a hidden front in the city’s broader assault on civil liberties. ‘Sexual violence happens all the time’ in juvenile prisons, [summed up] one victim,” the report by the Washington-based human rights group stressed.

Lead authors Frances Hui and Samuel Bickett also detailed how political prisoners are routinely held for years in detention and singled out for “harassment and isolation.”

In a New York Post commentary, Bickett described being an “American political prisoner in Hong Kong,” witnessing “the savagery and squalor firsthand.”

Responding to his allegations, the city’s Correctional Services Commissioner, Wong Kwok-hing, rejected the claims. He called them “utterly false, wholly unfounded,” and a “malicious smear,” in a letter, as reported by the Hong Kong Free Press.

Abuse has been normalized and shielded from scrutiny.

Activist Samuel Bickett

The facts:

• More than 1,900 people have been imprisoned on political charges since 2019, when Hong Kong witnessed a wave of massive pro-democracy protests.
• A sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing quickly silenced dissent, while pro-democracy political parties were banned and activists rounded up.

Delve deeper: “Hong Kong’s collapse in civil liberties is often told through courtrooms, police raids, and shuttered institutions,” activist Bickett, formerly a lawyer for the Bank of America in Hong Kong, pointed out on Substack, a social media site. 

Between the lines: “One of the least visible arenas, though, is its prisons. Abuse has been normalized and shielded from scrutiny,” he added after being imprisoned for more than four and a half months in 2021.

Big picture: Still languishing in a cell is Jimmy Lai, the high-profile pro-democracy publisher. Now aged 77, he is facing the prospect of life in prison. The founder of the now-closed Apple Daily has been behind bars for nearly five years.

Bottom line: “I don’t want my father to die in jail,” Sebastien Lai said, after claiming last year that his father, who has diabetes, had been denied independent medical care.

China Factor comment: The Chinese Communist Party government agreed to a “One Country, Two Systems” model after the British handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Nearly 30 years later, it resembles a “One Country, One System” paradigm of repression.