Hong Kong 'speedboat fugitives' place for China trial, US urges release
28 December, 2020
The United States called for the "immediate launch" of several Hong Kong activists facing trial in China on Mon (Dec 28), once they attempted to escape the territory by speedboat for sanctuary in Taiwan.
10 of the so-called "Hong Kong 12" are thanks in court in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen facing expenses linked to an illegal border crossing.
Chinese authorities took them into custody just after their boat was intercepted found on Aug 23.
At least two of the group face up to seven years in jail for organising the attempted escape from a city where activists this past year led significant protests against Beijing's rule.
Some of the group were already facing prosecution in Hong Kong, where China has got imposed a draconian national protection law that has stamped out the city's protest movement.
"Their so-called 'crime' was to flee tyranny," a good US embassy spokesperson at the US consulate-general found in Guangzhou told AFP, time ahead of their scheduled court overall look via video link.
Urging their "immediate release", the spokesperson explained "Communist China will minimize at nothing to avoid its persons from seeking freedom somewhere else".
Groups of the accused - the youngest of whom is merely 16 - have needed the hearing found in the Shenzhen courtroom to come to be broadcast live, once they were unable to wait as a result of short find for the trial and COVID-19 requirements.
These were only notified of the trial time on Friday, while their legal professionals have already been barred from ending up in the detainees. Authorities rather have appointed state-accepted legal representation.
In a joint letter over the weekend, the families said they "strongly condemn" the authorities' decision to hold the trial in "de facto secret" at Yantian District People's Court.
"We urge governments to send embassy staff to the hearing to ensure a proper and good trial by the courts in Shenzhen," they explained, noting that those detained include British, Portuguese and Vietnamese nationals.
The security law that now blankets Hong Kong gives authorities sweeping powers of prosecution for acts deemed terrorism, succession, subversion or collusion with foreign entities.
The town had enjoyed unique freedoms since its handover from former colonial power Britain in 1997, with a package promising a "one country, two systems" arrangement for 50 years.
Beijing says the new security law was first had a need to restore peace and steadiness but critics have condemned it as a fatal attack about Hong Kong's freedoms.
China has a history of getting dissidents on trial around the Xmas and New Time period in order to avoid Western scrutiny.
Amnesty International said there is little opportunity the group would get a fair trial.
"They have up to now been deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to defend themselves through legal representation of their very own choosing," Amnesty Hong Kong's Programme Supervisor Lam Cho Ming said found in a statement.
Eight of the group are accused of an against the law border crossing, while several are actually suspected of organising for other folks to cross the border.
Two minors encounter non-public hearings.
Since Beijing's imposition of the security law in June, Taiwan has emerged as a sanctuary for Hong Kong activists - quietly turning a blind attention to residents arriving without proper visas or paperwork.
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