Responding to a Hong Kong court\u2019s conviction of the father of US-based pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok under the city\u2019s Article 23 law, Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Joey Siu said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis conviction is the first time a family member of a \u2018wanted\u2019 pro-democracy activist living abroad has been convicted under Hong Kong\u2019s national security laws. It marks a disturbing escalation in the Hong Kong government\u2019s repressive use of \u2018Article 23\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe absurd bounty placed on Anna Kwok\u2019s head due to her activism is already a brazen attack on her freedom of expression. Now, as Hong Kong authorities stoop to a new low, her father faces jail solely for an alleged attempt to handle an insurance policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis apparently politically motivated conviction of an activist\u2019s close relative also sets a dangerous precedent, designed to terrify and silence others who continue to speak out about Hong Kong issues from overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHong Kong authorities must immediately release the father of Anna Kwok, as well as all others accused of assisting activists in exile, unless they can show they have committed an internationally recognized crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The father of Anna Kwok was today convicted of attempting to deal with funds linked to an \u201cabsconder\u201d, an offence under the Hong Kong\u2019s Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, often referred to as the \u2018Article 23\u2019 law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anna Kwok is a US-based Hong Kong activist wanted for \u201ccolluding with foreign forces\u201d, with national security police offering a reward of HK$1m (US$128,000) for information leading to her capture. She is one of the 34 activists in exile targeted with a bounty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In late 2024, Hong Kong\u2019s Secretary for Security Chris Tang invoked his powers under Article 23 to cancel Kwok\u2019s Hong Kong passport, declare her an \u201cabsconder\u201d, and prohibit her from dealing with funds, other financial assets or economic resources in Hong Kong, along with six of the other exiled activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Hong Kong\u2019s National Security Law came into effect in June 2020, the human rights situation in the city has deteriorated dramatically, with the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association among the rights under sustained attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city\u2019s Article 23 law, enacted in March 2024, has further squeezed people\u2019s freedoms and enabled authorities to intensify their crackdown on peaceful activism in the city and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Responding to a Hong Kong court\u2019s conviction of the father of US-based pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok under the city\u2019s Article 23 law, Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Joey Siu said: \u201cThis conviction is the first time a family member of a \u2018wanted\u2019 pro-democracy activist living abroad has been convicted under Hong Kong\u2019s national security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":0,"recipients":"","recipients_refresh":"","recipients_refreshed":"","_hero_title":"","_hero_content":"","_hero_cta_text":"","_hero_cta_link":"","_hero_alignment":"","_hero_background":"","_hero_size":"","_hero_show":"","_hero_type":"","_hero_embed":"","_hero_video_id":0,"_hero_hide_image_caption":true,"_hero_hide_image_copyright":false,"_nav_style":"","_disable_share_icons":false,"_disable_sidebar":false,"_display_author_info":false,"_hide_featured_image":false,"_hide_featured_image_caption":true,"_maximize_post_content":false,"_reduce_content_width":false,"_sidebar_id":0,"_stretch_thumbnail":false,"byline_context":"","byline_entity":"","byline_is_author":false,"disable_related_content":false,"download_id":0,"download_text":"","show_published_date":true,"show_updated_date":true,"term_slider":"","amnesty_index_number":"","document_ref":"","amnesty_updated":"","amnesty_umbraco_data":"","footnotes":""},"category":[1662],"location":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-27562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hongkong-news"],"datePosted":"February 11, 2026","mlpRelationships":{"1":27562,"5":28275},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=27562"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=27562"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amnestyhk.org\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=27562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}