Hong Kong: 12 pro-democracy candidates banned under security law

Disqualifications and growing number of activist arrests under law imposed by China signal curtailment of city's civic freedoms

Twelve pro-democracy candidates have been disqualified from Hong Kong's upcoming legislative elections, in the most sweeping curtailment of the city's electoral freedoms to date.

The government said the candidates were not fit to run for office on the grounds that they had advocated the city's independence, solicited intervention by foreign governments or opposed the national security law.