Ten protesters from Hong Kong, whom Chinese officials say were captured attempting to flee the city, were sentenced to up to three years in a mainland China prison, according to a report last week in the Financial Times.
The ten were attempting to escape prosecution over their alleged involvement in last year’s anti-government protests.
The judgment was handed down during a closed-door hearing and sparked international condemnation. The sentence was also seen as a warning to potential copycats. The Washington Post reported that the ten were part of the group called the “Hong Kong 12.” (Two on board were minors and not charged.) The others, ranging in age from 16 to 33, were arrested in August. They were attempting to reach Taiwan by speedboat, the report said.
Tang Kai Yin, the 31-year-old who is said to be the organizer of the escape attempt, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $3,000. The other sentences ranged from seven months to two years with slightly lower fines. The detainees were not allowed to speak freely with relatives and were appointed their legal representation, the report said.
The FT reported family members covered their identities during a press conference after the sentencing. One of their fathers said, “In the mainland, no matter it is one day or seven days, it is a wrongful conviction.”
Ho-Fung, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University, told The Post, “This episode will create an atmosphere of terror among dissidents and activists.”
TREND FORECAST: We have continually reported in the Trends Journal that Beijing could not quell the extensive Hong Kong protests that began in March 2019 and had well over a million citizens taking to the streets.
The demonstrations were in reaction to the Fugitive Offenders legislation bill, which would have allowed China to extradite Hong Kong criminal suspects to the mainland.
As Gerald Celente had forecast when the virus first broke out in China last January, Beijing would use COVID-19 to achieve what they were unable to accomplish before the virus stuck Wuhan: lockdown Hong Kong to stop the protests.
That has now been accomplished… along with Beijing’s new national security law, the city is under the full dictate of the Chinese government.
