Two men convicted of organizing an illegal border crossing have been sentenced to two and three years in prison, respectively. The other eight were convicted of participating in border crossings and all were sentenced to seven months. The Yantian People’s Court said all 10 were convicted. All defendants also received fines ranging from $ 1,500 to 3,000 3,000.
Earlier on Wednesday, China also handed over two suspects under the age of 18 to Hong Kong police aboard the boat. Officials in the southern city of Shenzhen said they had confessed to crossing the border illegally, but had not been charged.
All 12 people were detained for more than 100 days before this week’s hearing in Shenzhen because of pressure from their parents and politicians from Hong Kong, the United States and the United Kingdom. A group representing the families of the accused said their loved ones had been abused in Chinese custody and denied access to their lawyers.
Police and prosecutors in Shenzhen have previously denied allegations of ill-treatment and claimed that 12 people had received legal advice, although the main role of denying defendants their preferred lawyer by appointing a government-appointed lawyer has been well documented in the past.
On Monday, U.S. A State Department spokesman urged Beijing to release the 12 and allow them to flee the country, leaving “torture in their so-called ‘crime’.”
The spokesperson said that the treatment of these 12 persons by the PRC authorities, some of whom are minors, has been horrific. “Beijing officials continue their campaign to print the remaining rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, falsely equating their system of governance with the rule of law by party decree.”
The future of the new activists has attracted considerable attention both in Hong Kong and abroad, symbolizing the city’s deteriorating political freedoms and climate since the passage of a new national security law earlier this year. The law – imposed on the city by Beijing, leaving Hong Kong’s semi-democratic legislature – has already had a cooling effect on criminal isolation, sabotage and alliances with foreign armies, and politics and debate.
Chung tried to leave the city in October, seeking asylum at the US Consulate, but returned.
The coronavirus epidemic has resulted in a steady growth in escape locations this year, exacerbated by closed and downhill cages around the world. Taiwan’s sea route was closed once it became clear that they were monitoring the waters around the city by the Chinese Coast Guard.
The city’s Beijing-appointed chief executive, Kerry Lam, denied the Hong Kong government had any hand in the case or any suggestion of involvement before the 12 people were arrested.
She said in October that the fugitives “chose to flee, and while fleeing they entered another jurisdiction and committed the crime of entering another place illegally.” “They have to face legal consequences in that jurisdiction. It’s that simple and straightforward.”
Protest proposals last year were likely the main source of legal action in China to oppose the proposed extradition bill, and the future of the 12-year-old faced many of the concerns felt in Hong Kong. Activists were allegedly denied access to proper legal representation and were given little information about their status.
The public prosecutor and the police, as well as the Chinese courts, are overseen by the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful central political and legal affairs commission and its local branches.
In a statement, Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific regional director, said: “The sentences handed down after the unjust trial pose a threat to anyone who has tried himself under the Chinese criminal system.”
He added, “The Chinese authorities have shown the world once again that political activists will not hold a fair trial.”
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