[ad_1]
But high in the sky above them, someone may have been aware of the danger they faced.
A nonstop sea crossing in an open motorboat of the type used by the 12 usually took about 14 hours, dangerous and exhausting, with a severe risk of capsizing. But shortly after the 12 crossed the maritime border between Hong Kong and mainland China, their ship was stopped by a coast guard ship.
They have been detained in China since then, denounced as “separatists” by Beijing and charged with various crimes, including illegal border crossing and smuggling, with the threat of potentially more serious national security charges weighing on them. Back in Hong Kong, their families have pushed desperately for them to return, saying the 12 have been denied access to lawyers and abused while in Chinese custody.
Shenzhen police, across the Chinese border from Hong Kong, said “public security authorities will protect the legitimate rights of suspects in accordance with the law.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the fugitives had “chosen to flee and, in the course of fleeing, entered another jurisdiction and committed a crime of trespassing elsewhere.”
“They have to face the legal consequences in that jurisdiction,” Lam added. “It’s as simple and straightforward as that.”
She refuted any suggestion that the Hong Kong government was aware of or involved in the case before the 12 were arrested.
But according to open source flight data, first reported by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper, a Government Flying Services (GFS) plane was deployed in eastern Hong Kong, over Po Toi O, at approximately 4 a.m. am on August 23, and remained in the area for more than four hours.
The movement of the plane, as recorded by FlightAware, an aircraft tracking service, coincides with a timeline of the fugitives’ journey published by the Hong Kong government.
The GFS plane circled the Po Toi O area until 7:30 a.m., when it began to fly to the southeast, the direction the speedboat took into open water. The Chinese Coast Guard stopped the ship at 9 a.m., less than an hour after the plane began to return to base.
According to information provided by GFS, the aircraft involved, a Bombardier Challenger 605, is equipped for search and rescue, aerial surveillance and aerial photography.
Publicly available flight data for the particular aircraft, B-LVB, shows that the August 23 trip was out of the ordinary – it did not fly before 7:30 a.m. on any other day between August 18 and August 7. October, nor made any other flights. of more than three hours during this period.
On Thursday, Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong shared a partial flight plan that he said had been leaked by a whistleblower within the air service. The alleged log, which CNN has not been able to independently verify, shows an operation dubbed “P-OPS,” which Wong said stands for “police operation,” was ongoing during the period that FlightAware tracked.
A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Security Office, which oversees police, immigration control and flight service, said that “in accordance with established practice, details of deployment and navigation of aircraft involved in the attacks will not be disclosed. flight missions “.
“The Hong Kong Police have reiterated time and again that the 12 Hong Kong suspects were arrested by mainland Chinese authorities for the crime of crossing the border illegally,” he added. “The operation has nothing to do with the Hong Kong Police.”
The suggestion that the government or police may have been aware of the 12 fugitives, one of whom was facing charges under the city’s national security law, planned to flee Hong Kong and let them go, exposing them to higher penalties in China, it has caused widespread outrage in the city.
“I am appalled and dismayed that the Hong Kong government evidently colluded with the Chinese authorities to put activists in greater danger, on matters clearly within their jurisdiction,” Wong said in a statement.
In a press release on Thursday, a group representing the families of the fugitives accused the government of a “conspiracy” to hand over their loved ones to China and called for their immediate release.
A small protest was held outside the air service headquarters later Thursday, but was soon broken up by police, who accused protesters of breaking coronavirus public gathering restrictions.
Hong Kong has its own judicial system, under the principle of “one country, two systems” that aimed to safeguard the limited autonomy of the city until 2047, with legal and human rights protections that are not enjoyed on the mainland.
The law, which the government says is necessary to restore order, has prompted several prominent activists to flee abroad.
CNN’s Rebecca Wright, Ivan Watson and Isaac Yee contributed to this report.
[ad_2]