Hong Kong issues bounties for 5 activists for security crimes

Hong Kong police on Thursday issued bounties of HK$1 million for each of five activists accused of national security crimes and currently living overseas, adding they would be pursued “till the end”.

All five are living abroad after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the financial hub in 2020 to quell dissent after massive, and at times violent, pro-democracy protests.

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“All of them, who have already fled overseas, have continued to commit offences under the national security law that seriously endanger national security,” said Chief Superintendent Li Kwai-wah of Hong Kong’s National Security Department.

He added that they “betrayed their country, betrayed Hong Kong, disregarded the interests of Hong Kong people, and continue to endanger national security even when abroad”.

“We have placed bounties of HK$1,000,000 ($128,000) on each of them,” Li told reporters at a press conference, in which he showed pictures of the group.

Among them was prominent activist Simon Cheng, who is currently in Britain and founder of the civil society group Hongkongers in Britain.

The other four named were Frances Hui, Joey Siu, Fok Ka-chi and Choi Ming-da.

Their charges include incitement to secession, incitement to subversion and foreign collusion, said Li.

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Hong Kong’s National Security Department will “pursue them till the end”, Li said.

“For those who want to financially support these people, I urge them to think twice, to avoid drawing trouble to themselves.”

The national security law — which has reshaped Hong Kong society and busted down the legal firewall that once existed between the special autonomous region and mainland China — has the power to hold accused people across the world accountable.

But Hong Kong authorities have not specified how enforcement abroad is possible.

This is the second time Hong Kong’s police have issued hefty rewards in an effort to nab those accused of national security crimes.

In July, eight prominent activists also overseas — including pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui — were named as targets for the police, which offered rewards of HK$1 million each.

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City leader John Lee — who has been sanctioned by the United States for his role as security chief during the 2019 pro-democracy protests — had said the wanted activists would be “pursued for life” and called on them to surrender.

The United States, Australia and Britain — countries where some of the accused activists now reside — had condemned the move from the Hong Kong government, with Washington calling it a “dangerous precedent”, and also slamming the bounties as part of China’s “transnational repression efforts”.

After the July announcement, police took in at least 30 people in Hong Kong — two-thirds of them family relatives — for questioning over their alleged ties to the eight activists.

Under the law, security cases are handled by designated police officers, prosecutors and judges in Hong Kong, and Beijing can take over certain cases to try them in the mainland’s opaque, Communist Party-controlled justice system.

© Agence France-Presse