Former district councillor among three arrested over alleged seditious acts outside Prince Edward station

Hong Kong's national security police have arrested three individuals, including a former district councillor, on suspicion of committing acts with seditious intention in connection with a gathering outside Prince Edward MTR station on August 31.

According to police, individuals were seen standing outside the railway station holding bouquets and chanting seditious slogans on the evening of August 31. Investigators alleged that the participants spread false information, made groundless attacks against the government, and smeared the police force in an attempt to incite public hatred toward the administration and law enforcement agencies.

Operation across Hong Kong Island and Kowloon

Officers from the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force carried out coordinated enforcement actions across Hong Kong Island and Kowloon on September 3. 

Operating under court-issued search warrants, police searched the suspects' residences, seized relevant evidentiary items, and detained two men and one woman aged between 33 and 79 for suspected offenses under Section 24 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.

Among those detained was former Kowloon City district councillor Virginia Fung King-man, who was subsequently released on police bail from Hung Hom Police Station on Saturday afternoon pending further investigation.

Background and prior records of suspects

Sources familiar with the investigation identified two of the arrested individuals as anti-government activist Chan Kwun-yuk and former councillor Fung, describing both as members of a local protest group. 

The group has previously been linked to disruptions of local merchant businesses and harassment of pedestrians, including a 2016 incident involving verbal abuse directed at a medical professor and his wife in Tsim Sha Tsui East.

Chan was previously arrested in 2020 for unlawful assembly and was sentenced to five months in prison in September 2022 after publishing 44 seditious online posts between January 2021 and June 2022. 

Fung, who served on the Kowloon City District Council from 1998 to 2004, previously served an 18-month jail term for defrauding the government of HK$350,000 in rental allowances using falsified receipts. 

She was also arrested during the 2014 Occupy movement for obstructing police clearance operations in Causeway Bay and was questioned by police in June this year for allegedly displaying seditious hand gestures in the same district.

A third suspect, surnamed Tam, is understood to have a developmental condition and is suspected of having been incited or manipulated by others into participating in the gathering without a full comprehension of the situation.

Official stance and statutory penalties

Police emphasized that claims surrounding the August 31 incident at Prince Edward station are entirely without factual foundation, warning that individuals with ulterior motives exploit the occasion to spread fabricated narratives, disrupt public order, and pursue political objectives.

Authorities reiterated that committing acts with seditious intention constitutes a serious criminal offense, carrying a maximum penalty of up to seven years in prison upon a first conviction under the current national security legislation. 

The police force reaffirmed its commitment to enforcing the law strictly to prevent, suppress, and penalize any activities that jeopardize national security.

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