Over 700 people have been arrested in connection with the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, and many of them are underage.
A 14-year-old female student, surnamed Chan, told local media that she was not even a protester but was arrested for merely passing near a police station at Tin Shui Wai on Aug. 5, according to NOW.
Earlier that day, protesters held a general strike and seven smaller-sized rallies across the city, demanding that the local government fully withdraw a now-suspended extradition bill.
Chan said that she was on her way back to her school to buy textbooks when she was arrested along with one of her classmates. She said that police had suspected they were headed to take part in an unlawful assembly. After the rallies, protesters had occupied multiple districts in acts of civil disobedience against a local government that continued to avoid dialogue over the protesters’ demands.
Chan was then held at the police station for more than 10 hours, during which she and her classmates were forbidden from calling their family.
While being held, police demanded their passwords in order to unlock their cell phones.
Chan explained that neither she nor her classmate knew that they could reject the police’s request at the time, and that they had handed over their passwords.
After their release, police kept one of the phones for investigation, Chan told NOW.
Hong Kong police announced during a daily briefing on Aug. 15 that 748 people have been arrested in connection with the protests since June 9. Of these, 115 have been charged, police said.
June 9 was the first of many mass protests against the extradition bill in Hong Kong. Over 1 million people took to the streets, fearing that the city’s judicial autonomy would be undermined by a law that would allow anyone passing through Hong Kong to be extradited and trialed in China’s courts. Communist China is infamous for using its judicial system to silence critics and dissents, giving them long sentences.