Hong Kong police arrested a member of the group behind the city’s canceled candlelight vigil on the morning of June 4 for allegedly advertising or publicizing an unauthorized assembly.

Chow Hang-tung, vice chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was taken away by officers near her law firm in Central at 7:40 a.m. on Friday, sources familiar with the matter told Apple Daily.

Police confirmed later on Friday that they had arrested a female lawyer surnamed Chow, 36, and a man, 20, said to be a food delivery worker, in Central and Sha Tin respectively.

The two allegedly violated Public Order Ordinance 17A(1b) by advertising or publicizing information about an unauthorized event on social media, police said. The offense warrants a fine of HK$10,000 and a 12-month jail term.

They were being held at a police station for investigation, Terry Law, senior superintendent of the force’s New Territories South Regional Headquarters, said in a media briefing.

He said that the duo’s appeals on social media were extremely irresponsible, as people who joined the prohibited event upon their request would be in breach of the Public Order Ordinance.

Law declined to elaborate on exactly what or when the two had posted on social media. No details could be disclosed as the case was under investigation, he said.

The senior superintendent responded to reporters’ questions about whether members of the public would be breaking the law by talking about the June 4 vigil on their own social media platforms. Law would only say that the police would take action according to individual cases.

He added that no other political considerations factored into the two Friday arrests.

Chow, a barrister by profession, did not turn up at Commercial Radio to attend an interview scheduled in the morning.

In an earlier media interview, Chow had said that she would go to Victoria Park on the evening of June 4 in a personal capacity to commemorate victims of the 1989 Beijing Tiananmen Square massacre, in order to “keep this 32-year promise.”

Chow revealed to Apple Daily before the arrest that she had been stalked by an unknown person in the past two days. She was vexed but took things in her stride.

Hong Kong’s annual vigil was the only mass public commemoration of the June 4 incident held on Chinese soil over the decades. Authorities banned the event for a second year running, citing the risk of contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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