civic group-activists

▲ This image, provided by the May 18 Foundation, shows the civic group's logo. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Yonhap) -- Two human rights groups called Sunday for the immediate release of three detained Gwangju Prize laureates in Hong Kong and Thailand.

The May 18 Memorial Foundation and the Network of Laureates of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights said the detentions of Chow Hang-tung of Hong Kong and Thai activists Arnon Nampa and Jatupat Boonpattararaksa "reflect a crisis of democracy in Asia."

Jatupat, a Thai activist and the 2017 recipient of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, and Arnon, a Thai human rights lawyer who won the prize in 2021, are detained in Thailand. Chow, a Hong Kong human rights lawyer and the 2023 laureate, is detained in Hong Kong.

"We stand in solidarity with activists striving to defend democracy and human rights in Thailand, Hong Kong and Myanmar despite violence, imprisonment and restrictions on basic rights," the groups said in a joint statement.

The prize was established in 2000 to promote the spirit of the May 18 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern South Korean city of Gwangju in 1980, during which a military crackdown on demonstrators left more than 200 civilians dead and 1,800 others injured.

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