Ten people who tried to flee from Hong Kong to Taiwan were sentenced to three years in prison in the Chinese court, while two minors were returned to Hong Kong police custody.
The Yantian People’s Court on Wednesday ordered the group to serve various sentences of between seven months and three years in prison. Of the two people charged with organizing the illegal border crossing, Tang Kai-yin was sentenced to three years and fined 20,000 RMB (£ 2,260), and Quinn Moon to two years and a fine of 15,000 RMB.
The remaining eight people, all charged with crossing the border illegally, were sentenced to seven months in prison and fined 10,000 RMB.
The court said Tang bought the boat, and he and Quinn plan to smuggle the passengers from Hong Kong to Taiwan. It is said that they were organized by others to commit the crimes, and that they thus received a reduced sentence as accomplices.
It is believed that all members of the group pleaded guilty during the one-day trial, which was effectively closed to the public because foreign diplomats and press were expelled from the courtroom. The trial date was announced just three days earlier, leaving family members with no time to travel to Shenzhen and complete quarantine.
The two remaining members of the group, both under 18, were returned on Wednesday morning under the supervision of Hong Kong police. The Yantian people’s procuratorate in Shenzhen, after a ‘non-public trial and investigation’, decided not to charge the minors after admitting guilt. The two teenagers will have spent more than four months in jail.
At a press conference in Hong Kong, police said the pair were likely to face additional charges of ‘evasion’.
“Society will approach zero tolerance towards anyone who tries to disappear,” said Commercial Crime Chief Cheng Lai-kei. Cheng also claims that all detainees in Shenzhen violated Hong Kong laws, although no one was tried or convicted, RTHK reported.
The group – which the supporters and the media called ‘Hong Kong 12’, and were called ‘separate’ by Chinese authorities, was arrested in the early hours of August 23, when the coastguards in KwaZulu-Natal boarded their speedboat off the coast of Hong Kong intercepted. The 12 on board, between the ages of 16 and 33, were allegedly traveling to Taiwan and fleeing charges in connection with the protests in 2019. Among the passengers was Andy Li, an activist arrested under the draconian national security law, which is suspected of collusion abroad.
The Hong Kong government said mainland authorities said the boat left Po Toi O at around 07:00 and left for the mainland half an hour later, where it was intercepted 26 nautical miles off Hong Kong waters. With little information provided by the Chinese authorities, the suspicion existed that the boat had not yet been in Chinese waters.
The group was taken to Shenzhen on the mainland, and their families and authorities in Hong Kong were only notified days later. According to their family members, they were cut off from the outside world, denied medication and their chosen lawyers denied entry. According to other firm advocates, authorities tried to pressure them not to represent their clients. In November, families received letters from the detainees, but the content only increased their concern.
It is only in mid-December that they are finally charged. Two were accused of arranging an illegal border crossing, and another eight committed it. Two of the group are minors, and although authorities said their cases would be heard later in a closed door session, it was revealed on Wednesday that they would rather be returned to Hong Kong.
The arrests have become a flashpoint for the pro-democracy movement, which is heavily targeted by authorities. Since the introduction of the National Security Act in June, dozens have been arrested and high-profile activists imprisoned or forced into exile.