Ten people in the high-profile case of the 12 Hong Kong people will be tried on December 28 at the Yantian District People’s Court in Shenzhen. The families of seven of them were informed of the trial on Friday (Dec. 25) when they were suddenly notified by “official lawyers” appointed by the Chinese authorities, who denounced the intention of the Chinese authorities to hold a secret trial.
The other two, who were under the age of 18 at the time of their arrest, will be heard by the prosecutor’s office on an unknown date.
The 12 Hong Kong residents were involved in the “anti-China” movement in Hong Kong. They were intercepted by Chinese marine police in late August while trying to travel to Taiwan by speedboat and have been held in Shenzhen’s Yantian Detention Center since then. The 12, aged 16 to 30-something, include Hong Kong Story member Lee Yu-hin, who is suspected of breaking Hong Kong’s version of the National Security Law, and a woman. Deng Kai-yin and Qiao Ying-yu, who drove the boat, were charged with organizing others to cross the border, while the remaining 10 were charged with smuggling across the border. They have been held in isolation since they were placed in the detention center, and Chinese authorities have not allowed them to communicate directly with their families.
The Hong Kong group “12 Hong Kong People Concern Group” posted the news on Facebook Friday. It said that 10 people need to face trial, but only the families of seven have been notified of the hearing. The Yantian court replied to media inquiries, saying that the 12 Hong Kong people’s case is a “secret case” will not allow members of the public, journalists and other people to observe the trial, the families have to contact the judge in charge of the trial to ask whether they can observe the trial, and in the Yantian court announced the live trial schedule, the 10 Hong Kong people’s trial is not listed.
The families of the 12 Hong Kong people said in a statement issued on Monday that in response to the 14-day quarantine requirement for entry into China, they asked the authorities to give them 20 days’ advance notice of the trial so that they could have time to attend the trial.
However, the “12 Hong Kong People’s Concern Group” said that they were notified by the “official lawyers” appointed by the Chinese authorities only three days before the trial, and that these three days included public holidays, so the family could not go to the Yantian court in person to attend the trial.
Li’s sister, Beatrice Li, tweeted that it was clear that the Chinese authorities were eager to hold the trial during the Christmas holiday so as to minimize the international backlash.
China’s State Council Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
In a statement released Friday through the “12 Hong Kong People’s Concern Group” Facebook page, the families demanded that the Chinese authorities broadcast the trial live on the Internet, make public details of the trial of the 12 Hong Kong people, including the date of the hearing of the two minors, the format of the trial and the judge’s information, and allow family representatives, lawyers appointed by the families, Hong Kong and international media and diplomatic envoys to attend the hearing; they also demanded that the authorities release the verdict after the trial and promise that the families will visit the 12 Hong Kong people as soon as possible if they are eventually sentenced to prison.
In addition, the families of the 12 Hong Kong people also asked the Hong Kong government to send staff to observe the case to ensure that the rights of the 12 Hong Kong people as Hong Kong citizens are protected.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said that the 12 Hong Kong people case is not simply a case of picking up the people concerned and bringing them back to Hong Kong; if they are arrested for violating the laws of mainland China, they must be dealt with according to mainland laws. Previously, the Hong Kong government also said that the 12 Hong Kong people must first face justice in China before being repatriated to Hong Kong, and that upon their return to Hong Kong, the government may conduct further criminal investigations based on the laws they broke during their participation in the anti-China protest.
The 12 Hong Kong residents’ arrest by Beijing for trying to flee Hong Kong has raised growing concerns about the future of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, and the 12 Hong Kong residents’ case has generated considerable concern in Hong Kong and internationally. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly spoken out about the incident. On the 19th of this month, Pompeo tweeted that the so-called “crimes” committed by the 12 Hong Kong people were simply an attempt to escape tyranny, and that they should be released immediately. He said that today’s Chinese Communist Party is turning Hong Kong into the East Berlin of the past and is doing its best to prevent people from seeking freedom elsewhere.
The Hong Kong government then responded by expressing its strong opposition to the U.S. official’s remarks about the 12 fugitives.
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