Infographic:Globaltimes.cn

A group of Hong Kong residents came to the headquarters of the Hong Kong Police Force on Friday morning, urging police to hold Hong Kong secessionist leader Nathan Law Kwun Chung, who has fled the city, accountable to law. Some legal experts have suggested he might be the first person targeted by an Interpol retrospective investigation into Hong Kong secessionists.

Victor Chan Chi-ho, vice chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Young Commentators, who was among the representatives petitioning police, told the Global Times that Nathan Law continues to smear the national security law for Hong Kong and the "one country, two systems" principle, blatantly trampling on the bottom line of the law and core policy. "We urge the police to strictly enforce the law and issue an arrest warrant as soon as possible to detain this secessionist," he said. 

Notorious Hong Kong secessionist leader Nathan Law has fled the city again, this time a day after China passed the national security law for Hong Kong, raising the ire of netizens on the mainland who are calling him a coward. 

On his Facebook account, Law said that he was in danger the day the national security law was enacted, and decided to leave Hong Kong.

He hasn't revealed where he is, or if he will return to the city again. On Wednesday, Law participated in a US congressional committee hearing via video link and told US politicians that the national security law will "damage Hong Kong's rule of law."

Law, and other secessionist leaders, including Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, announced they were withdrawing from the secessionist group Demosisto on Tuesday on Twitter, the day the law was passed. 

Rising numbers of netizens are outraged over Law's flight from the city, particularly as growing evidence points to the fact that these young secessionist leaders were closely working with lobbyists in Washington, fueling the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in November 2019.  

Under Article 20 of the newly enacted national security law for Hong Kong, any person who organizes, plans, commits or participates in any acts, with or without force and with the aim of secessionism or undermining national unification, shall be guilty of an offence. 

Tian Feilong, a Hong Kong affairs and legal expert at Beihang University in Beijing, who also took part in consultation work for the law, told the Global Times on Friday that authorities could request that Interpol order the arrest of secessionists or organization leaders advocating separatism and violating the law, even if they are in foreign countries. 

"If new, relatively harmful evidence emerges during an investigation, a probe can be retrospective," Tian said. 

Wong and Chow could not leave Hong Kong due to pending legal cases against them. 

Law first fled to the US last August when Hong Kong was being ravaged by protests, but still urged people in Hong Kong to stage violence, previous reports have stated. He returned to Hong Kong in March as the coronavirus swept through the US.

Chinese netizens are calling Law a "coward," who runs away every time he fears he might have to face legal consequences for his actions. "Such a coward. People who betray their own country won't have a good result," decried one netizen. 

"After he was seen publically colluding with foreign forces many times, there's no way people like him will return to Hong Kong," said another.


Newspaper headline: Hong Kong secessionist leader Nathan Law flees after national security law enacted