Police raid LSD’s headquarters, LGBT group

The League of Social Democrats (LSD) says the police raided its headquarters on Thursday morning, telling staff the move was part of an investigation into the now-disbanded Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF).

Chan Po-ying, the political party’s chairwoman, said they were told by officers that the force needed to collect documents related to the CHRF, which had organised some of the largest protests in the city.

Chan quoted the police as saying that they needed to search the LSD office because the party had “received information from the front” between 2019 and 2020, but officers didn’t seize anything after the hour-long search.

She described the raid as “ridiculous”.

“The police’s operation is a political intimidation to the LSD and civil society, creating a chilling effect,” said Chan, who’s the wife of jailed former LSD legislator Leung Kwok-hung.

“Although the police didn’t take away any documents, they have caused unnecessary nuisance to us,” she continued, adding that she understood officers also raided three other locations.

One of these was the office of the LGBT rights group Rainbow of Hong Kong, RTHK understands.

Earlier in the year, the police accused the CHRF of failing to register under the Societies Ordinance and demanded that it hand over information relating to its finance and past protests.

The front did not comply with the requests.

The group disbanded in August, saying it could no longer operate in the face of “suppression from the authorities”.

In response to RTHK’s inquiry, the police said it will deal with relevant cases in accordance with the Societies Ordinance.
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Last updated: 2021-10-28 HKT 22:26