Malaysia refuses entry to teen leader of Hong Kong protests

By Associated Press14:09 26 May 2015, updated 14:10 26 May 2015

HONG KONG (AP) — A teenage leader of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests was turned away at the airport Tuesday when he tried to enter Malaysia, which said he has been blacklisted.

Joshua Wong said the immigration officials cited a "government order" when they stopped him at the airport in northern Penang state.

Immigration Director-General Mustafa Ibrahim said in a statement that Wong is banned from entering Malaysia but did not explain why.

Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong holding his flight boarding pass from Penang to Hong Kong talks on his mobile phone after arriving the Hong Kong airport... — Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong holding his flight boarding pass from Penang to Hong Kong talks on his mobile phone after arriving the Hong Kong airport Tuesday, May 26, 2015. The Hong Kong teen protest leader, who rose to prominence during last year's pro-democracy protests in the southern Chinese city, talks to media after he was prevented from entering Malaysia. Wong said he was heading to Penang to speak at a conference but immigration officials at the airport stopped him from entering the country, citing a "government order" and sent him back to Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The 18-year-old was scheduled to speak at seminars in four Malaysian cities on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and about the Chinese government's bloody crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

He wrote on the Facebook page for his student activist group, Scholarism, that when he tried to call the local organizers after he was denied entry, immigration officials grabbed him by the arms.

He was then put on a Dragonair flight back to Hong Kong.

Wong helped spearhead the student-led protests that gripped Hong Kong for nearly three months last year.

At the peak, tens of thousands or more protesters demonstrated against election restrictions in the semiautonomous Chinese region, though the movement ended quietly as the government refused to offer concessions.