HONG KONG — An opposition politician in Hong Kong has been arrested over an online post criticizing a policeman who blinded a journalist in one eye during anti-government protests last year, local media said.
Cheng Lai-king was released Thursday after being formally charged with sedition earlier in the day, public broadcaster RTHK said. Messages to the city spokesman’s office were not immediately returned.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper said the 61-year-old local district councilor’s arrest came a day after she forwarded a Facebook post that identified by name and badge number the policeman who was believed to have fired the rubber bullet that blinded Indonesian journalist Veby Mega in one eye.
Superintendent Swalikh Mohammed, of the police cybersecurity and technology crime bureau, was quoted as saying that a woman in her 60s was arrested on suspicion of seditious acts. He said the case related to online posts that contained personal information about an officer and his family.
The paper said Cheng’s post urged the officer to turn himself in.
ASSOCIATED PRESS