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HONG KONG: Twelve Hong Kong people arrested while allegedly sailing to Taiwan seeking political asylum “will have to be treated” by mainland China, but the city government will try to provide assistance, Executive Director Carrie Lam said on Tuesday. of September). ).
Chinese authorities arrested the 12 people on August 23 after intercepting a ship off the coast of the southern mainland province of Guangdong. Local media reported that they were heading to Taiwan to apply for political asylum.
“The point is not just to get them back,” Lam told a weekly news conference.
“If these Hong Kong residents were arrested for committing crimes on the mainland, then they must be dealt with according to the mainland’s laws and according to the jurisdiction before anything else happens.”
Lam added that his government had a “duty to provide assistance” to Hong Kong residents “caught in all kinds of situations” abroad and that the government representative office in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, will seek ways to provide this assistance and establish contact with the authorities of the continent. .
The AFP news agency reported Monday that attorneys representing some of those captured have been denied access to their clients. Lam didn’t address that particular aspect when asked.
Neither mainland Chinese nor Hong Kong authorities have publicly confirmed who has been arrested, but local media have identified some of them as being prosecuted for their involvement in last year’s protests.
A man, Andy Li, was recently arrested under a comprehensive national security law imposed by Beijing in the Asian financial center on June 30. Another has dual citizenship with Hong Kong and Portuguese citizenship.
The Guangdong Coast Guard, which announced the arrests on its social media platform late on Aug. 26, said two of the detainees were named Li and Tang, without providing further details.
It is unclear what charges they face, beyond the potentially illegal border crossing.
Lam also reiterated a comment made last week that raised further concerns that Hong Kong had taken a more authoritarian turn, saying the city had no separation of powers, and that its executive, legislative and judicial powers were derived from Beijing.
