Hong Kong
A mystery person on Wednesday saved 16 Falun Gong members from prison by paying fines imposed by a Hong Kong court.
The unknown person stepped in to pay the fines -which ranged from 160 U.S. dollars to 480 U.S. dollars per person - after the deadline for payment expired and the judiciary began preparing arrest warrants for the group.
The 16 - which include 11 Hong Kong residents, four Swiss nationals and one New Zealander - had been fined after being found guilty of causing obstruction during a protest outside the Beijing Liaison Office - the Chinese government' s defacto base in Hong Kong earlier this year. Nine of the group - all Hong Kong residents - were also found guilty of obstructing the police while three were convicted of assaulting a police officer.
But the group had refused to pay up on principal, claiming the verdict of the court had been unfair.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong' s judiciary confirmed it had dropped plans to prepare arrest warrants for non-payment - an offence which could have resulted in jail sentences of up to two weeks - because the fines had been settled.
A Falun Gong spokeswoman confirmed all the fines had been paid but by a member of the public and not the convicted members.
"We first want to thank the member of public who did this out of a sense of justice. This prevents the practitioners from further persecution," she said, adding that they still planned to appeal against the verdict.
The convictions were the first-ever in Hong Kong involving members of the movement which was banned in China in 1999 [..]. [..]
* * *
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source.
more ...