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.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique