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The night he made a failed attempt to flee to Taiwan by speedboat, 16-year-old Hong Konger Hoang received a phone call telling him it was time to leave immediately.
The teenager is the youngest of a dozen Hong Kong activists now in mainland Chinese custody after trying to escape prosecution for huge protests for democracy last year, their ship seized by the Chinese coast guard.
They have since disappeared into the mainland’s opaque and party-controlled justice system, compounding fears in Hong Kong that Beijing’s authoritarianism is infiltrating the financial center.
Hoang was facing one charge of attempted arson caused by allegedly dropping gasoline bombs. AFP is withholding his full name due to his age.
He has a troubled relationship with his family and was taken in by a network of politically sympathetic locals while awaiting trial in Hong Kong.
“When we first met, he hardly spoke,” recalls Diana, who housed Hoang for three months and was with him during what turned out to be his last night in the city.
“It’s difficult to get close to his heart as he protects himself so much and struggles to connect with strangers,” he added, asking to use a pseudonym.
Hoang’s behavior that night did not strike Diana as unusual, she recalled.
The young man walked out the door in the early hours of August 23. But after a day Diana was worried. She hadn’t heard from him.
Across the city, 11 other families were going through a similar ordeal.
Wong Wai-yin, a 29-year-old technician who was also on the ship, kept his escape plans a secret from his family.
He faces serious charges in Hong Kong for manufacturing explosives and, until he disappeared, had been attending his bail dates regularly.
After his disappearance, his wife and mother frantically searched his belongings, fearing the worst when they found a message apologizing if something bad happened to him.
“I have not washed his pillow since he disappeared,” Wong’s wife told AFP, requesting anonymity. “I fear that one day I will lose its scent.”
Rumors soon began to circulate among friends, family and activist networks that the group had been apprehended. But it wasn’t until August 26 that confirmation came.
That day, the Chinese authorities announced that 12 Hong Kongers had been arrested for carrying out an “illegal border crossing”.
Later, a pro-Beijing newspaper published the names of those on board and details of the charges they faced in Hong Kong.
Details later emerged of a bold but ultimately doomed attempt to reach Taiwan, more than 700 kilometers (430 miles) away, via the South China Sea.
While Beijing has cracked down on Hong Kong’s democratic movement, democratic Taiwan has become a sanctuary, quietly turning a blind eye to residents who arrive without the proper visas or paperwork.
Flying to Taiwan has become more difficult during the coronavirus pandemic, and those accused of crimes related to the protests have often had their passports confiscated, leaving a potentially dangerous ship crossing the only option.
The “Hong Kong 12”, as the group was called, are the first known Hong Kongers to be caught making the trip.
After attempting to escape prosecution in Hong Kong, the fugitives now face a much tougher legal battle within the judicial system controlled by China’s authoritarian party, where conviction of the accused is almost guaranteed.
In Hong Kong, anyone arrested must be released if the police fail to bring them to court within 48 hours. The city’s common law legal system, including trial by jury in a public court, is respected internationally.
On the other side of the border, the system is much more opaque.
Authorities only confirmed that the group was in criminal detention in the neighboring city of Shenzhen, in mainland China, 20 days after their arrests were announced.
Even now, neither the Beijing nor Hong Kong authorities have officially released their names.
At a joint press conference earlier this month, some family members said that lawyers from the mainland they had appointed were repeatedly denied access to their clients, while others were warned not to speak to journalists.
The defendants, families were told, had been assigned lawyers “appointed by the government.”
Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing government has made it clear that it will only seek the return of the city’s residents once they have been prosecuted for any relevant crime on the mainland.
Lu Siwei, one of the mainland Chinese lawyers working on the case, believes the authorities will likely make a decision on whether to indict the fugitives in early October.
“If the prosecutors do not approve the arrest, the 12 Hong Kong residents must be released on bail or unconditional release before October 1,” Lu wrote in his legal opinion.
“If the arrest is approved, they will remain in detention and the possibility of conviction will be very high.”
su / jta / rma / axn
