The father of a US-based activist wanted by Hong Kong authorities was yesterday convicted for attempting to deal with his daughter’s financial assets in the territory, in the first court case of its kind brought under a homegrown national security law.
Kwok Yin-sang’s (郭賢生) daughter Anna Kwok (郭鳳儀) is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council. Authorities in 2023 offered HK$1 million (US$127,919) for information leading to her arrest and later banned anyone from handling any funds for her — widely seen as part of a years-long crackdown on challenges against Beijing’s rule following massive democracy protests in 2019.
Kwok Yin-sang, 69, is the first person to be charged under a Hong Kong law known as Article 23 that expands on a Beijing-imposed National Security Law, for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an absconder. He was accused of having attempted to obtain funds from an insurance policy under his daughter’s name. He pleaded not guilty.
Photo: Reuters
Acting principal magistrate Cheng Lim-chi (鄭念慈) found Kwok Yin-sang guilty, saying he must have known his daughter was an absconder and he was attempting to handle her assets.
According to previous hearings, Kwok Yin-sang bought the insurance policy for his daughter when she was a toddler and she gained control of it when she reached 18 years old. The father last year wanted to cancel the policy and get funds from it, the court heard.
Kwok Yin-sang’s lawyer, Steven Kwan(關文渭), pleaded for a lesser sentence, saying there was no evidence to show his client was trying to get the money to send to his daughter. He suggested the judge consider a 14-day prison term.
During the closing submission, Kwan argued that section 89 and 90 of Article 23 should not apply in a case where a person was simply handling an insurance policy he had purchased a long time ago for his children.
“This ... is a form of prosecution based on family ties,” Kwan said.
While the maximum sentence for his charge is seven years of imprisonment, his case was heard at the magistrates’ courts, which normally hands down a maximum sentence of two years.
Kwok Yin-sang’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 26.
Authorities have accused Anna Kwok of demanding foreign sanctions, blockade and engaging in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong through meeting foreign politicians and government officials.
Her brother was also arrested for the same crime and is on bail.
“Today, my father was convicted simply for being my father,” she wrote on X. “This is transnational repression.”
She said his charge was founded on “incoherent fiction” and she had not received or sought funds from her father or anyone in Hong Kong, adding that the government’s actions would not discourage her from carrying on her activism.
Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that punishing a father for his daughter’s peaceful activism is “an alarming act of collective punishment that has no place under international human rights law.”
Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokeswoman Joey Siu (邵嵐) said the conviction was apparently politically motivated.
“It also sets a dangerous precedent, designed to terrify and silence others who continue to speak out about Hong Kong issues from overseas,” she said in a statement.
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