A Hong Kong court sentenced the father of a wanted democracy activist to eight months in prison under the territory’s homegrown national security law, after he attempted to terminate her insurance policy and withdraw the funds.
Kwok Yin-sang (郭賢生), 69, was found guilty on Feb. 11 for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an “absconder” under the national security law, also known as Article 23.
He is the first person in the territory to be charged and convicted with the offense. He had pleaded not guilty and did not testify at the trial.
Photo: AFP
In court yesterday, he appeared calm and waved goodbye before being taken back into custody.
His daughter, Anna Kwok (郭鳳儀), is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, and is one of 34 overseas activists wanted by the Hong Kong National Security Department.
She is accused of colluding with foreign forces and police have offered a HK$1 million (US$127,838) bounty for her arrest.
“To sentence my father under the pretext that his actions lowered the ‘likelihood’ of my return to stand trial is not justice; it is a judicial farce,” Anna Kwok said after the sentencing.
The insurance policy was never in her name, whether as owner or policyholder, and she had never exercised any control over it, she added in a statement.
“My father was convicted and sentenced under the guise of ‘national security’, she said. “In truth, this is guilt by blood, this is hostage taking. This is transnational repression.”
Her father was accused of trying to withdraw HK$88,609 from an insurance policy that he bought for her when she was two years old.
Magistrate Andy Cheng (鄭念慈) said Kwok Yin-sang’s case was serious under Article 23 and had nothing to do with family ties.
“There is no such thing as ... collective punishment, and it has absolutely nothing to do with whether the defendant and the fugitive are family,” Cheng said.
Asked what she would like to tell her father, Anna Kwok said in Washington before the sentencing that she wanted to hug him and apologize for putting him in such a difficult situation.
“Asian dads are not very known for showing affection with hugs and I realized this year, I actually ... don’t think I’ve ever hugged my dad since I became an adult,” she said.
China imposed a sweeping National Security Law on Hong Kong in 2020 and the territory’s legislature passed a second set of national security laws — Article 23 — in 2024, to plug what authorities called “loopholes” in the national security regime.
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