Italian Reverend Pleads for Release of Hong Kong Political Prisoners Before Lunar New Year

Italian Catholic Reverend Franco Mella holds a sit-in pleading for the Hong Kong government to release all political prisoners from the Hong Kong Protests outside Stanley Prison in Hong Kong on Jan. 9, 2023. Sung Pi-Lung/The Epoch Times

Italian Roman Catholic priest and human right activist reverend Franco Mella held a sit-in protest outside Stanley prison in Hong Kong on Jan. 9. He pleaded to the Hong Kong government to release all detained protesters and political prisoners from the 2019 anti-extradition protest, so they could be home to be with their families for the Lunar New Year.

Mella arrived in Hong Kong in 1974 and is a member of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions.