Leader of Banned Hong Kong Independence Party Held, Group Says

(Bloomberg) -- The founder of a banned Hong Kong political party was among those arrested after a police raid, an activist group said, in the latest string of detentions following eight weeks of unrest in the Asian financial center.

Andy Chan, the founder of the Hong Kong National Party, was among those arrested and brought to Ma On Shan police station, the Students Independence Union said on its Facebook page with a photo of Chan early Friday. Chan's party was hit with an unprecedented ban last year and his speech at the city's foreign correspondents' club led authorities to deny a visa renewal to the journalist group's acting president.

Police said they arrested eight people between the ages of 24 and 31 on suspicion of possessing weapons and explosives without a license, without identifying the suspects. Police said they confiscated items including baseball bats, a bag of steel balls, a gasoline bomb, bows and arrows during the operation. A police spokeswoman declined to comment on reports of Chan's arrest.

The detentions come less than two weeks after police arrested three men -- two of whom were members of independence groups -- in connection with the seizure of explosives, firebombs and other weapons in the city, where hundreds of thousands have turned out regularly to protest a controversial extradition bill since early June. Earlier this week, 44 protesters were charged with a rioting offense that can carry a 10-year prison term.

The charges represent a shift for the Hong Kong government, which has refrained from employing the powerful rioting statute since Chief Executive Carrie Lam's extradition legislation prompted the mass protests over the past months.

On Thursday night, a crowd calling for the release of the eight gathered outside Sha Tin police station, where it was thought the suspects were held, the South China Morning Post reported. They taunted police in riot gear guarding the gate, threw eggs at the building and blocked exists, according to the Post. They later moved to Ma On Shan police station and vandalized installations after learning the suspects were sent there, it reported.

The Hong Kong government issued an unprecedented ban against Chan's party in September. It said the group posed risks to national security, could use force to achieve its goal and had spread “hatred and discrimination” against Chinese visitors to Hong Kong.

To contact the reporters on this story: Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.net;Dominic Lau in Hong Kong at dlau92@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz

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