Police National Security Department arrests one man
The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force (NSD) took enforcement actions in Sheung Shui today (December 6) and arrested a 71-year-old local man, for being suspected of "prejudicing of investigation of offences endangering national security" and "doing an act that has a seditious intention with a seditious intention" in contravention of Section 88 and 24 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance respectively.
Investigation revealed that the arrested man was suspected of disclosing details of a case endangering national security, after assisting with the investigation conducted earlier by NSD officers. He was also suspected of publishing multiple videos with seditious intention online, with content provoking hatred towards the Central Authorities, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Judiciary.
The man is being detained for further enquiries.
Police took law enforcement actions based on evidence and in accordance with the actual circumstances, and applied Section 88 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance for the first time. The article stipulated that if a person knows or suspects that an investigation of an offence endangering national security is being conducted, the person with intent to prejudice the investigation; or being reckless as to whether the investigation will be prejudiced, without reasonable excuse or lawful authority, makes any disclosure; or the person knowing or suspecting that any material is likely to be relevant to the investigation; and with intent to conceal the facts disclosed by the material from persons conducting the investigation, without reasonable excuse, falsifies, conceals, destroys or otherwise disposes of the material, or causes or permits the material to be falsified, concealed, destroyed or otherwise disposed of, commits an offence. Offenders shall be liable to imprisonment for seven years upon conviction.
Police remind members of the public that "doing an act that has a seditious intention with a seditious intention" is also a serious offence. Offenders shall be liable to imprisonment for seven years on first conviction.
Source: AI-found images
Government announces updates on follow-up work on Tai Po fire
The three task forces set up by the Government for the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po - the Task Force on Investigation and Regulation, the Task Force on Emergency Support and Fund-Raising, and the Task Force on Emergency Accommodation Arrangements - are making full efforts to follow up on the support, relief, and investigation work related to the incident. Details are as follows:
Financial and welfare support
---------------------------------
For the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, established by the Government, donations received amount to about $3 billion as of 4pm today (December 6). In addition to the start-up capital of $300 million from the Government, the fund's total has now reached around $3.3 billion. The fund will be used to assist residents in rebuilding their homes and providing long-term and sustained support.
The Government earlier announced that the Support Fund will provide a living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 1 125 cases have been processed. The living allowance has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000 and will be disbursed in phases. In addition, the Support Fund will provide families of each deceased victim with a token of solidarity of $200,000, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 85 cases have been processed.
In addition, the Government has so far disbursed an emergency subsidy of $10,000 to 1 931 households.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1 970 affected households, and more than 4 900 residents have been registered for the "one social worker per household" follow-up service. The SWD will maintain liaison with the affected households to provide all necessary assistance while fully supporting the relief work of the Government. Those not yet in touch with the SWD are advised to leave their contact information by calling 182 183 as soon as possible.
Accommodation support
---------------------------
As of this morning, a total of 1 403 residents have been accommodated, through the co-ordination of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps, or hotel rooms. Another 2 599 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or units from the Hong Kong Housing Society. Moreover, the Tai Po District Office continues to operate a temporary shelter at Tai Po Community Centre, which remains open to residents in need. The other temporary shelter at Tung Cheong Street Community Hall will remain in operation until the existing users have relocated to arranged emergency accommodations.
The Transport Department (TD) is steering public transport operators (PTOs) to enhance services of franchised buses, green minibuses and residents' services (RS) by deploying additional vehicles and manpower to support residents affected by the fire who have been admitted into transitional housing in various districts, facilitating transfers to other services to and from different districts. Among them, an additional shuttle bus service has been launched connecting Good House in Tai Po, Tai Po Centre and Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, while a supplementary RS has been introduced connecting THE STEP (a transitional housing project) in Yuen Long and Tai Po Market Station. The TD will closely co-ordinate with operating organisations of transitional housing projects concerned and PTOs to cater for residents' commuting needs.
Relief supplies and donations
--------------------------------
The supplies donation online platform, established by the Government and the information technology sector, continues to operate, facilitating the registration of supplies donations from organisations and the public. The Government has so far received over 1 500 registrations, of which approximately 30 per cent were submitted by organisations, whereas the others were contributed by the public. The various registered donation items include food and beverages, clothing, daily necessities, bedding, and electrical appliances. The Government is actively assessing residents' actual needs through the relevant policy bureau, Government departments, and service organisations for the matching of donated supplies in order to distribute appropriate items in phases to places in need. So far, over 4 800 pieces of donation items covering various categories have been distributed to different places. The matching and distribution of supplies will continue.
Handling of reported missing persons
------------------------------------------
The Police have completed searches inside all seven buildings. Officers from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit continued to search the area around the buildings and near the collapsed scaffolding today, which had been confirmed as safe. No human remains were found, and the number of the deceased remains at 159. The Police are contacting the families of the missing persons and those who have preliminarily identified the deceased through photographs and are arranging for them to undergo DNA oral swab sampling early next week for scientific identification of the deceased.
Investigations
----------------
The Inter-departmental Fire Investigation Task Force, led by the Fire Services Department, collected samples at the fire scene together with personnel of the Government Laboratory for testing.
Regulation and inspection work
-----------------------------------
The Independent Checking Unit of the Housing Bureau continued to extract concrete core samples from the affected buildings today. So far, four buildings have been covered.
All the protective nets in the four Home Ownership Scheme courts, including Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po, On Kay Court in Kwun Tong, Sui Wo Court in Sha Tin and Ching Lai Court in Sham Shui Po, as well as Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan under the Tenants Purchase Scheme, have been removed.
The Development Bureau announced on December 3 that any scaffold nets installed on external walls of all public and private buildings, as well as government buildings undergoing major repair work, must be removed by today, and the work on the external walls must temporarily cease. Discretionary arrangements for an extension of time may be considered for individual cases if there are reasonable grounds. As of 3pm today, of the some 200 private buildings installed with scaffold nets, 175 have had their scaffold nets removed from the external walls. The removal work at another 52 private buildings is underway and expected to be completed in one to two days. Three applications requesting additional time involving three buildings were received, and the relevant contractors indicated that they will aim to finish the removal work by next week. Having reviewed the justifications provided, the Buildings Department (BD) has accepted their applications.
The BD has sent today SMS messages to all registered contractors (including those currently carrying out major repair work or those who have earlier received a cease-work order issued by the BD) and reminded them again that before and after the removal of protective nets, screens, tarpaulins and plastic sheeting from scaffolding (except for localised areas requiring emergency protection), they must ensure that there are no materials or loose items on the scaffolding, and that the scaffolding is safely secured to ensure public safety.
The BD is now pressing ahead with the formulation of a new set of arrangements requiring the scaffold nets used at construction sites to be sampled on-site and certified as compliant with the relevant standards prior to installation. The BD aims to make an announcement within the next week so that the relevant external wall work can resume as soon as possible.
In view of the suspension of repair work on external walls of those buildings, after joint deliberation by the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and the Development Bureau, the CIC will expand the quota of the current Multi-skilled/Skill Enhancement courses, which are tuition-free and with subsidies, and reserve 5 000 training places for affected workers (trades including plumbing, window framing, painting and decoration, plastering, and bamboo scaffolding). The measure will not only help them upgrade their skills, but also alleviate the impact of the work suspension on them. Depending on the specific trade course and training hours, workers who complete the training and obtain qualifications can receive a maximum subsidy of $14,000 to $19,000. Applications for the programme will open Monday (December 8).
The Labour Department (LD) continues to inspect fire protection facilities and the fire emergency preparedness of building maintenance work sites with large-scale scaffolding to ensure the occupational safety of workers. As of 4pm today, the LD has inspected 318 construction sites, issued a total of 163 written warnings and 95 improvement notices, and has taken out 25 prosecutions.
Photo by Bastille Post
