Hong Kong protests: Carrie Lam says calling 12 detained in Shenzhen ‘democracy activists’ a bid to distract from wanted status

Hong Kong’s leader insisted on Tuesday that mainland Chinese authorities had the jurisdictional right to detain 12 young fugitives from the city caught at sea while reportedly fleeing to Taiwan, saying those who depicted them as oppressed democracy activists were trying to distract from their status as wanted individuals.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said her government was providing assistance to the 12, who were sought by local police over crimes connected to the city’s anti-government protests, as a lawyer representing one of them questioned the jurisdiction of neighbouring Shenzhen’s public security agency in handling the cases.

Lu Siwei, who said transferring the group back to Hong Kong would be “an act of wisdom”, is one of the very few mainland lawyers to have not dropped his client despite pressure from local authorities.

At least five family-appointed lawyers had withdrawn their cases as of Tuesday, and none of the involved legal representatives had been able to reach their clients, according to a source on the mainland with direct knowledge of the matter.

The dozen, aged 16 to 33, have been held at a detention centre in neighbouring Shenzhen’s Yantian district since August 23, when the Chinese coastguard arrested the group – allegedly attempting to flee to Taiwan via speedboat to seek political asylum – on suspicion of crossing the border illegally.

Lam on Tuesday said rather than linking their plight with democracy, the focus should be on the fact that the 12 were sought by Hong Kong police.

“The reason for their fleeing Hong Kong is seemingly to escape their legal responsibilities,” Lam said at a press briefing ahead of her weekly meeting with the Executive Council, her de facto cabinet.

Andy Li, one of the 12, had been arrested on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces, an offence under the new national security law, which also criminalises acts of secession, subversion and terrorism.

The other 11 were either charged with or arrested on suspicion of crimes such as arson and possessing explosives, which Lam described as very serious offences.

“Why am I highlighting the essence of the matter? I need to set the record straight. Some local or foreign individuals have tried to divert attention by saying it is about democracy activists being oppressed, and other such things,” Lam said.

US Department of State spokesman Morgan Ortagus recently called the arrest of the 12 “Hong Kong democracy activists” yet another example of the city’s deteriorating human rights situation, while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern the detainees had been “denied access to lawyers of their choice”.

Lu, a Sichuan-based human rights lawyer, wrote a 4,000-word article on Tuesday to relay concerns from the families of the detainees.

He questioned the legal grounds for the China Coast Guard Bureau, which intercepted the speedboat at sea, transferring the group to the Yantian Branch of Shenzhen’s Public Security Bureau last month.

He cited the Procedural Provisions for Public Security Agencies Handling Criminal Cases, revised earlier this year, saying that public security organs do not have jurisdiction over criminal cases of the China Coast Guard Bureau.

Lu said it would be more proper for Yantian’s public security agency to hand over the 12 to Hong Kong’s judiciary after their identities had been verified.

“Handing the cases back to Hong Kong is entirely feasible and an act of wisdom, under the spirit of ‘one country, two systems’ and the mainland’s breadth of mind,” he wrote.

Hong Kong steps up pressure on Taiwan over five detained in reported asylum bid

Mainland authorities announced on Sunday that the 12 were suspected of illegally crossing the border. Under China’s Criminal Law, those arrested for this face imprisonment of not more than a year, but the penalty can be life behind bars for those with a principal role in operating a syndicate or who violently resist law enforcement.

Lu, in his Tuesday article, challenged the law’s application for Hong Kong residents, as the act of border crossing was criminalised before the return of the British colony to Chinese rule in 1997.

He said as Hong Kong was now part of China, any violation of permit conditions between Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland should not be criminalised, but managed by administrative measures.

“Otherwise, it would be a weird loop if citizens are alleged for illegal crossing when they are just walking on their own land,” he said. “Under the ‘one country’ principle, such acts have no social harm.”

The lawyer’s three attempts to reach his female client at the detention facility failed over the past week, with Lu citing officers as saying the woman was already represented by others. Several other family-appointed lawyers also reached dead ends.

Lu urged families not to give up and to try posting letters to the detention facility inquiring about the situation of their loved ones.

The case has escalated into a China-US diplomatic row, with the 12 suspects described by Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, as “separatists” in a tweet on Sunday firing back at her US State Department counterpart Ortagus, who condemned the detention.

On Tuesday, Hong Kong executive councillor and lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, in a televised interview, suggested Hua’s comments indicated a possibility that Beijing might charge the group under the mainland’s national security law.

“We don’t really know, but it’s a possibility. It’s a possibility,” she said.

Enacted in 2015, the law sets out state power to punish acts of treason, secession, sedition, theft of state secrets, foreign infiltration and subverting the “people’s democratic dictatorship”.