Families fear for Hong Kong ‘speedboat fugitives’ in China custody
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by Yan Zhao
Relatives of Hong Kongers captured by China’s coastguard as they tried to flee the city by speedboat said Saturday they feared their loved ones had disappeared into the authoritarian mainland’s Communist-controlled judicial system.
Chinese authorities said they intercepted 12 Hong Kongers some 70 kilometres (43 miles) southeast of the city last month, with the group handed over to police in neighbouring Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland.
Local media said the group were en route to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that regularly offers sanctuary to people escaping the authoritarian mainland.
Some of those on board were facing prosecution in Hong Kong for activities linked to last year’s huge and often violent pro-democracy protests.
Relatives of six of those detained held an emotional press conference on Saturday describing how family appointed lawyers had been repeatedly denied access in recent days, as they called on on Hong Kong’s government to come to their aid.
“I’m very worried. I don’t know if he’s safe and sound, if he’s still alive,” the mother of detainee Li Tsz-yin, who did not give her name, told the media.
The mother of another detainee, Tang Kai-yin, sobbed as she spoke.
“I hope Hong Kong (government) can bring them back. Then we wouldn’t need to be on tenterhooks, we could see him. But right now, we don’t even know whether he is dead or alive,” she said.
One country, two judicial systems
The incident is the latest to compound fears among many Hong Kongers of authoritarian China’s growing reach into their lives.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong has its own internationally respected common law legal system where arrestees are promptly produced after their arrest and tried in open court.
