The office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London and another man are to go on trial in February for allegedly helping Hong Kong authorities gather intelligence in the UK, a judge said on Friday.
Yuen Chung Biu, 63, and Wai Chi Leung (Peter), 38, appeared at London’s Central Criminal Court for a preliminary hearing, charged with agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception that were likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service between December last year and May 2.
Hong Kong authorities have confirmed that Yuen was the office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London.
Photo: AFP
A third suspect, 37-year-old Briton Matthew Trickett, was also charged in the case, but he was found dead on Sunday last week in a park under what police said were unexplained circumstances.
Prosecutor Kashif Malik said during an earlier hearing that Trickett, reportedly a British immigration enforcement officer and a former Royal Marine, had attempted suicide after being charged.
He was also the director of a security company.
Photo: AFP
Police said in an updated statement on Friday that a coroner had completed a post-mortem and his death was not being treated as suspicious.
Justice Jeremy Baker set a trial date for Feb. 10 next year, set to last for about five weeks.
The judge said the men were granted bail on condition that they observe a set curfew and other restrictions.
The three men were charged under Britain’s National Security Act after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command. Prosecutors allege that the suspects also forced entry into a UK residential address.
They were arrested earlier this month in London and Yorkshire in northern England by counterterrorism police, using provisions of a new law that allows suspects in national security and espionage cases to be detained without warrant.
The case drew strong criticism from officials in Beijing and Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese control in 1997.
China yesterday accused Britain of “wanton stigmatization” and arbitrary arrests.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said in a statement on its Web site that it strongly condemned the UK for what it said were false accusations against Chinese citizens, infringing on their lawful rights.
Britain’s acts were “a wanton stigmatization of China and arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of Chinese citizens in the United Kingdom,” it said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) on Friday said that the charges were “an act of political manipulation in the name of national security.”
“It seriously infringed on the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals in the UK, gravely undermined China-UK relations, seriously violated the principles of international law and the basic norms of international relations and badly harmed the image of the UK,” he told reporters.
Additional reporting by Reuters
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
RSS