A Hong Kong activist was arrested on Friday morning for “incitement to subversion” ahead of a planned protest against Beijing’s hosting of the Winter Olympics.
This comes hours before the opening ceremony was due to kick off.
China embarked on a crackdown in Hong Kong following massive and at times violent pro-democracy protests, imposing a sweeping national security law that criminalized much dissent.
Wen Wei Po, a newspaper that answers to Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong, said Activist Koo Sze-yiu was arrested by national security police.
According to AFP, a senior police source confirmed that the veteran activist had been detained for “incitement to subversion” and that four others had been taken in to assist with their investigation.
The arrest comes days after Hong Kong journalists received a media invitation bearing Koo’s name saying he was planning to protest on Friday outside Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong ahead of the start of the Olympics.
“Many political activists and Hong Kong citizens have been jailed and cannot spend Lunar New Year with their families because of abuses of Hong Kong’s national security law,” reads the invitation, dated January 31.
“The central government is only concerned with hosting the Winter Olympics to whitewash the situation, and does not care about miscarriages of justice in Hong Kong,” it said.
According to AFP, Koo could not be reached for comment to confirm if he did organize a protest, which was slated to be held on Friday at 10 am.