Hong Kong politician says she is not pregnant and wasn't injured at Prince Edward vigil
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 10, 2020 at 10:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
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The image was published here to a Facebook group with more than 8,800 members on September 1, 2020.
The composite image contains a photo of a woman on the floor, a headshot of Civic Party politician and barrister Jessica Leung pasted onto a cartoon body, and a screenshot of Leung's purported contact details.
The traditional Chinese text overlay on the image translates to English as: “Civic party politician and barrister Jessica Leung pretends to be pregnant. It’s so embarrassing to be doxxed so quickly. How’s my acting?”
The post’s traditional Chinese caption reads: “Actually, the woman who claimed to be pregnant is civil party politician and barrister Jessica Leung. She used the ignorance of Hongkongers to create news.”
The posts circulated online a day after dozens of activists gathered outside Prince Edward subway station on the anniversary of a clash at the same location during last year's pro-democracy rallies.
According to this AFP report, officers declared the gathering an illegal protest and used batons and pepper ball guns to break up the crowds.
In one chaotic incident captured on film, police officers could be seen wrestling a pregnant woman to the ground and using pepper spray on others nearby.
The misleading image was also shared here, here and here on Facebook and here on Weibo, alongside similar claims.
The same claim was also shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here on Facebook; here on YouTube; here on Hong Kong-based forum Baby Kingdom, alongside a partial screenshot of Leung's contact details
The claim, however, is false.
In this Facebook post dated September 1, 2020, Leung denied the claims, saying: “I am not pregnant”.
多謝大家關心,沒有大肚,更沒有扮大肚。工作至現在,只有肚餓。 #搞清楚先 #黃店黃店
Posted by Jessica Leung 梁嘉善 on Tuesday, September 1, 2020
The traditional Chinese post reads: “Thank you for everyone’s concern, I am not pregnant, and did not pretend to be pregnant. Have been working till now, I am just hungry.”
In response to the posts, Leung told AFP via Facebook messenger on September 7, 2020: “I am further clarifying that I am not the pregnant woman involved in the 31/8 incident.”
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