DThe Hong Kong police have issued eight pro-democracy activists living abroad and have promised a reward of one million Hong Kong dollars (almost 117,000 euros) each for information leading to their arrest. Former MPs Nathan Law, Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, lawyer Kevin Yam, trade unionist Mung Siu Tat and activists Finn Lau, Anna Kwok and Elmer Yuen violated the security law that came into force in 2020, police said at a press conference .
The exiles have committed “very serious crimes that endanger national security,” said Steven Li, chief commissioner of China’s special administrative region’s national security department. Other allegations include cooperation with other countries and calls for sanctions against Hong Kong officials. The wanted people live in the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Australia.
Steven Li admitted that the police cannot arrest the wanted persons while they are abroad. They should return to Hong Kong and turn themselves in and they could get away with lighter sentences.
London: Will ‘always defend the right to freedom of expression’
The eight activists fled Hong Kong after Beijing enacted the so-called National Security Law for the SAR in mid-2020 following violent pro-democracy protests. It allows the authorities to take draconian action against protesters.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly responded to the bounty by saying Britain “will not tolerate any attempts by China to intimidate and silence people in the UK and overseas”. London will “always defend the right to freedom of expression”. British Home Secretary Tom Tugendhat tweeted that Law and his associates were under British protection.
London had Beijing because of that erosion of rights sharply criticized in the former British crown colony of Hong Kong. In 2020, London suspended its extradition deal with Hong Kong to protest China’s introduction of the controversial security law.
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