Hong Kong Threatens U.K. NGO Boss With Jail Over Security Law - Bloomberg
Hong Kong police have threatened the leader of a U.K.-based human rights watchdog with jail, as authorities move to prosecute the Beijing-drafted national security legislation beyond China’s borders.
Hong Kong Watch was accused of colluding with foreign forces and ordered to take down its website, in a letter from police to the organization’s chief executive Benedict Rogers, according to a statement on its website Monday. Rogers was told he’d be held “fully responsible” for the collusion charge that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
In 2019, Hong Kong Watch lobbied the U.S. and its allies to sanction Chinese entities for undermining the former British colony’s autonomy following that year’s anti-government protests. Measures were placed on 11 Chinese officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, months after Beijing imposed the security law on the city.
That sweeping legislation asserts global jurisdiction for cases involving terrorism, secession, subversion and collusion with foreign powers, raising concerns when it passed that China might reach beyond its borders to prosecute people.
“By threatening a U.K.-based NGO with financial penalties and jail for merely reporting on the human rights situation in Hong Kong, this letter exemplifies why Hong Kong’s national security law is so dangerous,” Rogers said in the statement.
Calling for foreign sanctions has emerged as a clear red line in Hong Kong’s crackdown on dissent. Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai faces charges of colluding with foreign forces under the security law, in a case that prosecutors say saw him mastermind an “international propaganda campaign” in 2019 to encourage foreign countries to “impose sanctions or blockade” Chinese officials.
The letter to Hong Kong Watch marks the second time in weeks security police have probed a foreigner with links to a human rights watchdog. Last month, a former Hong Kong Bar Association chairman fled the city hours after being questioned by security police over Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, the non-governmental organization he founded in 1995, local media outlet HK01 reported.
It remains unclear if Hong Kong authorities have taken steps to extradite Rogers to Hong Kong. The U.K. scrapped its extradition treaty with the city in June 2020 and last year warned people in Britain named in national security cases to avoid traveling to countries that have such agreements with the Chinese territory.
Rogers -- a former journalist who was denied entry to Hong Kong in 2017 -- also faces a HK$100,000 ($12,773) fine and one year in prison for failing to take down the watchdog’s website, which police last month blocked in the city, their letter said.
“Irrespective of this attempt to intimidate our staff and censor our website in Hong Kong we will continue to be a voice for the people of Hong Kong and those brave political prisoners who have been jailed under this authoritarian regime,” Rogers said.
source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-14/hong-kong-threatens-u-k-ngo-boss-with-jail-over-security-law
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