5 arrested in fresh Hong Kong national security law raids

Clifford Lo and Victor Ting, South China Morning Post Posted at Jul 12 2021 01:56 PM Hong Kong's national security police arrested five more people on Monday in connection with last week's alleged bomb plot by a pro-independence group, a police source said. The four men and one woman were detained in a series of raids in Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin, Sau Mau Ping, and Chai Wan. They were being held at different police stations and none had been charged. A week ago, police arrested nine people, including six secondary school pupils accused of being members of Returning Valiant, over an alleged terrorist plot to bomb courts, tunnels and streets in a series of attacks. Police said at the time they had carried out a series of raids, including at a guest house in the busy shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui that had been turned into a makeshift explosives factory by a well-organised group it said was in the final stages of preparing the attacks. Last Monday's suspects included six teenagers - four boys and two girls aged between 15 and 18 - and a staff member at Baptist University, who was suspected of funding the plot. At the Tsim Sha Tsui scene, police seized a trace quantity of explosives, two bottles of liquid chemicals and laboratory equipment required to produce triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable and powerful explosive known as TATP. The university employee was believed to have provided funding, and a source said police had frozen HK$600,000 (US$77,240) in his bank accounts. He was identified by an insider as a public relations officer working at the university's School of Continuing Education. His wife, who worked as an administrative staff member at a secondary school, was also arrested, the source said, adding the couple had previously driven protesters home from demonstrations. Police said they believed there were other financial backers still at large, and were hunting them. Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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