Victory to the People! All the WTO Detainees are Acquitted!

UPDATE: Following is the statement released by the HKPA on the last remaining WTO detainee who has been acquitted. Elizabeth Tang as the chairperson of the HKPA wrote as below:

I am pleased to let you know that the last remaining WTO detainee, Mr. Yun Yi Kwan has been acquitted today at the Fanling Law Court. Mr Yun was arrested together with a thousand WTO protestors on December 18 after their protest actions against the WTO on December 17. After 2 days, all were released except for 14 who were then being held on a charge of unlawful assembly and unauthorized assembly including Mr Yang Kyung Kyu, the acting vice-president of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and most of the others from the Korean Peasants League. Later on 13 of them were being released at various stages: eleven of them on January 11, Mr. Yang on February 6 and one on March 22.

In the past three and a half months, the Hong Kong People’s Alliance or the HKPA has been working closely with the detainees, the defense lawyers, people’s organizations locally and internationally to bring about the final release of the WTO detainees. We believe that they have protested on a just and legitimate cause which we all share.

On behalf of the HKPA, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you and your organizations for the supports and solidarity actions that have contributed to this victory. Many of you have sent protest letters, held demonstrations, sent donations, sent solidarity letters and so on in the last months. All of these have built pressure on the Hong Kong government, created awareness among people, kept our actions going and give us the much-needed moral support. This victory belongs to us all!

As being expressed by the detainees over and over again, we need to keep working closely together not only for their release and also for building a just and caring world for us and our children. I look forward to working closely with you and your organizations to continue our campaign against unjust WTO rules!