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Edward Snowden
Hong KongLaw and Crime

Asylum seekers who housed Edward Snowden in Hong Kong claim police illegally targeted them but force denies doing so

Lawyers for the group, which includes a former Sri Lankan soldier, say Hong Kong police investigated them rather than their report that Sri Lankan authorities were hunting them down in the city

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The group of asylum seekers housed former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in Hong Kong after he leaked sensitive US intelligence files in 2013. Photo: Nora Tam
Raquel Carvalho
Lawyers representing asylum seekers who helped American whistle-blower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong on Thursday claimed local police targeted them instead of looking into their concerns that Sri Lankan authorities were hunting them down in the city.
The asylum seekers, including a former Sri Lankan soldier, had in February last year urged local police to prevent any possible illegal cross-border law enforcement, as their relatives back home had been harassed by authorities there for the asylum seekers’ details in Hong Kong.

But Hong Kong police, the legal team said, arrested the asylum seekers instead and suggested their story was made up, an allegation that the police denied in a brief and vague response to the Post on Thursday.

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“If Hong Kong ever wanted to show the world that the rule of law is eroding, it could not have acted in a better way,” Marc-André Séguin, one of the Montreal-based lawyers who set up an NGO in Quebec named For The Refugees to support the asylum seekers, said.

(Left to right) Ajith Pushpakumara; Supun Thilina Kellapatha; Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis; Vanessa Mae Rodel and lawyer Robert Tibbo appear at their appeal hearing at The Torture Claim Appeal Board in October 2017. Photo: David Wong
(Left to right) Ajith Pushpakumara; Supun Thilina Kellapatha; Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis; Vanessa Mae Rodel and lawyer Robert Tibbo appear at their appeal hearing at The Torture Claim Appeal Board in October 2017. Photo: David Wong
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Séguin, who is currently visiting Hong Kong, added: “The individuals who witnessed the presence of the Sri Lankan police in Hong Kong were in several instances taken … and interrogated for a number of hours without the presence of a legal counsel and without the possibility to leave.”

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