Hong Kong targets activists day after vote

Police cracked down on Hong Kong democracy activists Monday, saying they would be charged over the Umbrella Movement mass protests, a day after a pro-Beijing candidate was chosen as the city's new leader.
Carrie Lam was selected as the new chief executive Sunday by a committee dominated by pro-China voters, but promised to try to unify the deeply divided city.
The vote was dismissed as a sham by democracy campaigners who fear Beijing is tightening its grip on semi-autonomous Hong Kong and say Lam will be no different from its unpopular current leader, Leung Chun-ying.
Those concerns were heightened Monday when police informed several leading campaigners who took part in the Umbrella Movement of 2014 that they would be charged in connection with the rallies.
The protests saw tens of thousands take to the streets calling for fully free leadership elections, but failed to win concessions from Beijing. 
Rights group Amnesty International said the police charges showed the city's freedom of expression and right to peaceful assembly was "under a sustained attack".
Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan told AFP she had received a call from police Monday morning telling her she would be charged with causing a public nuisance, with a maximum sentence of seven years.
"They said it was related to the 'illegal occupation' of 2014," she said, describing it as a "death kiss" from Leung, who will step down in July. 
Chan said she had been arrested at the end of the protests, but had never been charged. 
She will report to a police station later Monday and will go to court Thursday.
Democratic lawmakers said they would protest outside the police station Monday night. 
Activist Raphael Wong of the League of Social Democrats told AFP he would also be charged with public nuisance and blamed Leung after a call from police Monday. 
"As Carrie Lam talks about unity, they are saying you don't need it," he told AFP.
- 'Political persecution' -
Professor Chan Kin-man, a founding member of Hong Kong's Occupy Central, one of the groups behind the protests, also received a call Monday from police informing him of an impending charge and called the move "ridiculous".
"It shows the government has no intention to heal the divisions," Chan said. 
Lam repeated that she wanted unity Monday, but said her approach "should not compromise the rule of law in Hong Kong". 
The crackdown comes less than four months ahead of Lam's inauguration on July 1, when China's president Xi Jinping is expected to visit Hong Kong to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover of the city by Britain back to China in 1997.
"It does somehow protect the 20th anniversary ceremony in the sense that it deters the protesters from conducting any radical or violent campaigns," said political analyst Edmund Cheng of Hong Kong Baptist University.
Local media said police informed a total of nine activists they would face charges. 
Among them are reported to be the other two founders of Occupy Central, two student protesters and another lawmaker.
Pro-democracy campaigner Joshua Wong, one of the leaders of the Umbrella Movement, described the crackdown as "political persecution".
He was not among those who received a police notice of charges. 
Wong, legislator Nathan Law and former student protester Alex Chow were all convicted last year for taking part in, or inciting others to take part in, an anti-China protest that led up to the major rallies. 
They were given community service or suspended sentences.
Wong faces a further case in July related to the Umbrella Movement protests. 

Source: AFP