Threatening phone calls have reportedly been made to nine staff members at the Chief Executive’s Office, demanding that leader Carrie Lam resign and retract the controversial extradition bill within 24 hours, or her family will be burned to death.
Director of the Chief Executive’s office Eric Chan told Oriental Daily that the calls were made around noon on Tuesday, ahead of more protests set for Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Similar calls were made to the office of the Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng.
Chan said the police had been informed and the content and phrases used in the calls were all similar.
Week of protests
The extradition bill is set to arrive at the main legislative chamber on Wednesday with a vote expected next Thursday. The legal amendments were tabled in February to allow the city to handle case-by-case extradition requests from jurisdictions with no prior agreements, most notably China and Taiwan.
It would enable the chief executive and local courts to handle extradition requests without legislative oversight. However, democrats, lawyers, journalists, foreign politicians and businesses have raised concerns over the risk of residents being extradited to the mainland, which lacks human rights safeguards.
The plan led to the largest protest in post-colonial history on Sunday, with organisers saying a million demonstrators took part.
Some business have pledged to close on Wednesday amid calls for strike action.
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