Hong Kong police yesterday said that they had arrested nine people suspected of helping 12 Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates who fled the territory in August, heading for Taiwan, only to be intercepted by Chinese authorities and held in China.
The plight of those who fled has grabbed international attention and sparked concern among human rights groups, as their families say that they are being denied access to independent lawyers and air suspicions that Hong Kong authorities helped China to make the arrests.
Accused of crimes tied to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last year, the fugitives are being detained in Shenzhen, China, after authorities intercepted their boat and accused them of illegal border crossing.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Yesterday, police arrested four men and five women suspected of arranging transport for the fugitives, the Hong Kong Police Force’s Organized Crime and Triad Bureau Superintendent Tony Ho Chun-tung (何振東) said.
“One direction of the investigation is whether they helped others to flee,” Ho said, adding that he did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.
He dismissed the relatives’ accusations that local police played a role in the arrests in China.
“The arrests on the mainland had nothing to do with the Hong Kong police,” Ho added.
Police also seized HK$500,000 (US$64,516) in cash, computers, mobile phones and documents related to the purchase of a boat.
People began fleeing Hong Kong for Taiwan from the early months of the protests, most of them legally, by air, but some by fishing boat, people in Taipei who helped Hong Kong residents obtain visas have said.
Hong Kong authorities have said that those detained are to be represented by mainland lawyers of their choice, albeit from a list provided by Chinese authorities.
Their families have been offered “needed and feasible” assistance, which is to continue, the authorities have said.
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