They have been charged under a national security law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony in 2020, after the financial hub was rocked by protracted anti-China protests the previous year.
Some countries, including the United States, say the law has been used to suppress the city’s pro-democracy movement and it has undermined rights and freedoms guaranteed under a “one country, two systems” formula, agreed when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say the law has restored the stability necessary for preserving Hong Kong’s economic success.
Yam, contacted by Reuters, said he would continue to criticise what he described as “tyranny”.
“It’s my duty … to continue to speak out against the crackdown that is going on right now, against the tyranny that is now reigning over the city that was once one of the freest in Asia,” Yam, a senior fellow with Georgetown University’s Centre for Asian Law, told Reuters by telephone from Australia.
“All they want to do is try to make a show of their view that the national security law has extra-territorial effect,” said Yam, who police accused of meeting foreign officials to instigate sanctions against Hong Kong officials, judges and prosecutors.
“I miss Hong Kong but as things stand, no rational person would be going back.”
The seven others gave no immediate comment to Reuters.
Police told the press conference 260 people had been arrested the national security law, with 79 of them convicted of offences including subversion and terrorism.
Li said police were merely enforcing the law.
“We are definitely not putting on a political show nor disseminating fear,” Li said, adding that chances of prosecution were slim if the defendants remained abroad.
“If they don’t return, we won’t be able to arrest them, that’s a fact,” he said. “But we won’t stop wanting them.”
British-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said in a statement Britain, the US and Australia should issue statements “guaranteeing the safety of those activists named and the wider Hong Kong community living overseas”.
Source: CNA
