Former Democratic Party lawmaker Wu Chi-wai was remanded Friday after failing to relinquish his British National (Overseas) passport during an arrest.
Wu was one of 53 people detained earlier in the week for participating in unofficial primaries organized by Hong Kong's democratic political parties ahead of the since-canceled Legislative Council elections scheduled for September.
They are accused of subversion under the National Security Law - a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
During his initial arrest, police demanded Wu surrender all travel documents. Wu claimed he had already done so at another court hearing before later revealing to officers a British National (Overseas) passport.
Wu's lawyer Christopher Grounds said Wu complied with all other bail terms and would agree to bail conditions. This submission was rejected by the West Kowloon Magistrate's Office, making Wu the one of 53 people detained Wednesday to be denied bail.
"You are in breach of your bail conditions," the magistrate said during Wu's bail hearing Friday. The politician will remain in police custody until his next court appearance Jan. 15.
"The defendant deliberately breached the bail conditions," prosecutor Siu Kai-yip told the court and suggested the government might add the charge of misleading a police officer.
Siu noted that Wu had previously traveled to Thailand using his BN(O) passport and thus posed a flight risk with the document remaining in his possession.
BN(O) holders are eligible for a special visa giving them the right to live and work in Britain for five years before applying for settlement and ultimately citizenship.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab took to Twitter on Thursday to decry the arrests as "a grievous attack on rights and freedoms."
Elsewhere around the world, Wednesday's roundup of pro-democracy activists, union leaders, lawyers and lawmakers drew widespread condemnation.
"[These] arrests were the latest in a series of detentions related to the exercise of fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly, in Hong Kong," said U.N. representative Liz Throssel on Thursday and called for their immediate release.
United States officials echoed the U.N. in a statement of their own, in which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed that additional sanctions are being considered as a retaliatory measure.
