Cheung Tze-keung and the 17 other Hong Kong men held in Guangzhou should be brought back to the SAR for trial, say human rights and church groups.
Members of the Joint Committee for the Abolition of the Death Penalty are to petition Xinhua and Central Government Offices today to call for the abolition of the death penalty in China and the surrendering of the 18 Hong Kong residents to the SAR.
'We hope that the Hong Kong Government will arrange for extradition of the 18 to save them from facing the death penalty and let the public know more about the case,' a statement from the groups said. Cheung, 43, alias Big Spender, has been detained in Guangzhou with 17 other Hong Kong men and 14 mainlanders over a series of crimes that include murder, kidnapping, robbery and smuggling of firearms committed in the past eight years.
One committee member, Father Franco Mella, said: 'We are against the death penalty as it is against human rights. Nobody has the right to take other people's lives.' Police Commissioner Eddie Hui Ki-on and the Security Bureau have said they would not seek the surrender of the 18 suspects because many of the offences were planned and committed on the mainland.
