Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam condemns UK for charging three individuals with spying on the city [Reuters]
On a Monday at the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, three individuals, identified as Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, were charged with offenses concerning national security, including aiding the Hong Kong intelligence service. The city's Metropolitan Police provided this information in a statement.
In the same statement, these three individuals are also accused of committing foreign interference. However, without specifying any targets of their spying attempts.
In recent years, the relations between Hong Kong and its former colonial ruler, the UK, have witnessed a deterioration. This is largely due to the massive protests advocating for democracy in Hong Kong that occurred in 2019 and 2020.
The UK government has been critical of Hong Kong's subsequent crackdown on most of the opposition, while Hong Kong authorities have been irked by the UK's provision of sanctuary for pro-democracy leaders who are being sought by the Hong Kong police.
On a Tuesday shortly after these charges were announced, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee claimed these charges were false.
"The Chinese side firmly rejects and strongly condemns the UK's fabrication in the so-called case and its unwarranted accusation against the Hong Kong government,” Lee declared, directly referring to a Chinese Embassy in London statement which was issued in response to the charges.
In a statement the same day, the Chinese Embassy strongly condemned what it called the UK's "unwarranted accusation against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government."
The charges against the three men allege they agreed to carry out information gathering, surveillance, and deception likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service, according to PA media. It was also alleged that on May 1, the three forcibly entered a UK residential address.
All three men were granted bail, but restrictions were put in place: they are forbidden from traveling internationally and have to abide by a curfew at night and report weekly to their local police station.
During a Tuesday news conference, Hong Kong leader Lee mentioned that one of the men charged held the position of office manager for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London but didn't directly answer a question regarding the office's potential surveillance of Hong Kong dissidents in the UK.
Lee, a previous security chief in Hong Kong, stated that the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office exists for facilitating cultural and economic interactions with people and businesses in the UK. "Any attempt to make unjustified accusations against the Hong Kong government is highly unacceptable," he said.
The Metropolitan Police stated that the three men were charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service under the UK National Security Act.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, shared details in a release stating: "A number of arrests were made and searches conducted across England as part of this investigation. While this operation originates from London, the Counter Terrorism Policing network has been crucial to disrupting this activity and we have been working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service from the outset of the investigation."
The Met Police confirmed that the investigation is ongoing but there is no risk to the wider community.
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The foreign interference allegations against the three individuals do not specify any targets in Europe, such as countries in Asia.
Despite the tensions between Hong Kong and the UK, international organizations continue to express concern about human rights situations in various parts of the world, including Asia.
Source: edition.cnn.com
