Police: Disbanded or not, probe against Civil Human Rights Front continues

Hong Kong police on Sunday said it will continue to follow up any possible violations of the National Security Law or other laws by the Civil Human Rights Front, which announced its decision to disband on the same day.

"Criminal responsibility for the crimes committed by an organization and its members shall not be expunged by the dissolution of the organization or the resignation of members," the Hong Kong Police Force said in a statement hours after the Front's Sunday announcement.

The Front's decision was made at a specially convened general meeting on Friday and was adopted unanimously by all remaining members, the group said in a statement on Sunday.

The decision came as the group was under probe for alleged violations of the Societies Ordinance and the National Security Law for Hong Kong, as reported by some local media.

The police statement noted the Front has been operating illegally since its establishment in 2002, as it has neither registered as a company nor a legal society according to the Societies Ordinance.

The group in April failed to respond to a police inquiry for information on its members, activities and funds under the Societies Ordinance.

The Front at its peak consisted of more than 40 members, with eight remaining until today. It has been the major organizer of public meetings in Hong Kong since 2002, including a mass protest on July 1, 2003, that opposed the SAR government's move to adopt a piece of national security legislation as required by Article 23 of the Basic Law.

Since local social unrest in 2019, the group has held a series of illegal rallies that often turned into riots, rampant violence, and vandalism. The group's convener, Figo Chan Ho-wun, was jailed for 18 months in May over one of its illegal 2019 protests.

The Front was reportedly under investigation under the National Security Law for Hong Kong in March over an accusation of being funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, a Washington-based NGO. Many of its constituent political groups had subsequently revoked their membership, including the Professional Teachers' Union, Hong Kong's largest teacher organization, which also decided to disband on Tuesday.