The Hong Kong police arrested twelve protesters during the anti-extradition movement in 2019. During their bail, they tried to abscond by trying to flee to Taiwan on a speedboat, but they were caught and arrested by the Chinese Coast Guard and taken to mainland China for trial.
Nine of the 12 who had served their sentences in Mainland China were charged on their return to Hong Kong with “Perverting the Course of Justice.”
In the court hearings on July 15, Judge Wong commented that the case was serious because it was contempt [of court] and a challenge to the judicial system in Hong Kong. However, because the defendants had already served a sentence in mainland China, sentencing was based on the following: 15 months being the starting point for sentencing, with one-third of the sentence deducted for the guilty plea, each of the seven defendants was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment.
The seven to serve 10 months in jail are Liu Tsz-man, Cheng Tsz-ho, Cheung Chun-fu, Cheung Ming-yu, Yim Man-him, Li Tsz-yin, and Kok Tsz-lun, aged between 19 and 32.
One of the seven that pleaded guilty was Li Tsz-yin, failed to appear in court on the first day due to quarantine restrictions, but joined the other six defendants in court on July 16. The lawyers representing Li Tsz-yin submitted several letters of pleading, which state that a defendant is a young man of integrity. Even after his arrest, he worked hard and actively took self-development courses at the Chinese University. The lawyer also pointed out that since the defendant had just been sentenced the previous week to three and a half years imprisonment for rioting, he hoped the judge would exercise discretion to adjust the total sentence. His sentence for this case was pronounced to be seven months.
Another defendant Hoang Lam-phuc had pleaded guilty earlier and was sentenced to admission to a training center.
The ninth person, Wong Wai-yin, pleaded guilty to the accusation of making explosives and was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment. However, the allegation of Perverting the Course of Justice was just put on file and was not prosecuted.
Some Hong Kong people described the incident as “extradited to China,” and the outside world also questioned the role of Hong Kong police in the incident. They suspected the authorities had sent the Government Flying Service to monitor and track the 12 Hong Kong people but did not prevent them from leaving or being arrested by mainland police. All 12 Hong Kong people were arrested and detained by China’s Guangdong Coast Guard.
During the proceedings in China, thirteen family lawyers were asked to meet the mainland China police, the pressure was put on them not to take the cases, and six of the lawyers withdrew from defending the accused.
On Sept. 4, 2020, human rights lawyer Lu Si-wei from mainland China was also denied access to the 12 people.
Lu Si-wei and Ren Quan-niu revoked their legal practice license in mainland China.
The 12 Hong Kong people were charged in mainland China with the crimes of “organizing others to illegally cross the border” and “illegally crossing the border.” Two of them were underage at the time of the arrest, and no charge was filed. The remaining ten people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 7 months to 3 years.
