March 11 (UPI) -- Three Hong Kong activists on Saturday were sentenced to 4 1/2 months in jail for refusing to cooperate with police during a probe of their now-disbanded protest organization.
The trio were sentenced under a national security law that allows for the arrest of citizens under a variety of security pretexts.
In practice, critics say Law 66 has been mainly used by pro-Beijing Hong Kong authorities to jail union organizers and pro-democracy protestors, with more than 200 people being charged under the law since its implementation.
The activists, Chow Hang-tung, Tsui Hon-kwong, and Tang Ngok-kwan, were members of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, a protest movement known for holding vigils to commemorate the 1989 massacre by the Chinese government that followed the Tiananmen Square protests.
Hong Kong labor activist arrested by security police