Chinese University of Hong Kong ‘expels’ student held for sedition over Tai Po fire
Miles Kwan, who was arrested after launching a petition calling on the government to meet four demands following the blaze, claims he has been expelled
A Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) student arrested on suspicion of sedition after launching a petition calling for an independent committee to investigate the Tai Po fire has said he has been expelled.
“I was just expelled by CUHK,” Miles Kwan Ching-fung wrote on social media at midnight on Thursday, ending his post with a thumbs-up emoji. He said he had been suspended twice and had studied only intermittently over the past six years.
Kwan, 24, told the South China Morning Post on Friday that he was considering appealing the decision but feared the hearing would be unfair because of his arrest.
A letter from Jimmy Lee Ho-man, chairman of the university senate’s student discipline committee, said Kwan was “more likely than not” to have breached confidentiality rules by revealing online a confidential notification about a meeting relating to his arrest, he added.
Lee wrote that the move could damage the university’s reputation and one demerit would be imposed on Kwan.
The meeting followed an email from the senate’s secretary on December 1, saying his arrest by national security police on suspicion of sedition was serious, given he already had three demerits.