Two defenders of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy announced that they had obtained asylum: the former legislator Ted Hui in Australia and activist Tony Chung in the United Kingdom
The two men were found guilty of having violated the restrictive national security law of Hong Kong, which canceled dissent after being imposed by Beijing in 2020 following massive pro-democracy demonstrations. They are among the dozens of activists who fled the Hong Kong authorities.
Hui, a former member of the legislative council who left Hong Kong while he was on bond in 2020, was tried in absentia and had received a prison sentence of almost four years in 2022. He told RFA at the time that his trial was “a political trial, which was entirely predictable and without screening. The real boost is the tyrannical diet, not that did not protect it ”.
Since the condemnation of Hui, Hong Kong officials have interviewed his relatives, placed a bonus of $ 1 million HK (USD 128,211) on his capture and, earlier this year, have seized his assets.
Chung, who as a teenage secondary adolescents summoned a group that pleaded for Hong Kong’s independence against China, was also sentenced to a mandate of almost four years. He was released early for good behavior.
In an interview with RFA after fled in Great Britain in 2023, Chung said that after his release, the national security police tried to hire him as a informator and would seek him for a meeting every two to four weeks, leading him to a SUV with curtains drawn in an unknown place.
“They wanted me to confess and prove to them that I had nothing to hide and that I would not put in any other secessionist activity,” he said.
Chung has also been put on a desired list, and anonymous letters praising the award of $ 1 million for its capture were sent to its British neighbors earlier this year.
The Hong Kong government did not directly comment on affairs, but a spokesman said on Saturday that “any country that shelters criminals from Hong Kong in any form, it demonstrated the rule of law, largely lacking in legal systems by Hong Kong and Barbarian interferes in Hong Kong affairs.”
Includes France-Press agency reports.