Hong Kong activist Tony Chung charged with secession

HONG KONG AFP Oct29, 2020- Tony Chung, 19, a teenage Hong Kong democracy activist was charged on Thursday with secession, the first public political figure to be prosecuted under a sweeping new national security law Beijing imposed on the city.   

Chung, appeared in court charged with secession, money laundering and conspiring to publish seditious content, two days after he was arrested by plainclothes police in a Hong Kong coffee shop opposite the US consulate.   
He was remanded into custody until his next court hearing on 7 January and faces between 10 years to life in prison if convicted under the new law.   

A little-known group calling itself Friends of Hong Kong put out a statement shortly afterwards Chung’s arrest on Tuesday saying it had been trying to arrange for Chung to enter the US consulate that day and apply for asylum.