Portuguese authorities told Lusa today that a Hong Kong resident, holding a Portuguese passport, was detained in Shenzhen “for illegally crossing the border” after attempting to leave the SAR towards Taiwan.
“The Consulate General of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong has been informed that Mr Tsz Lun Kok, a natural and resident in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, holder of a Portuguese passport, will be detained in Shenzhen for illegal border crossing when leaving Hong Kong, by sea, bound for Taiwan”, according to a note sent to Lusa.
The Portuguese consulate recalled that China recognizes “the Portuguese passport only as a travel document not attributable to nationality”, which limits the intervention of the Portuguese authorities “to the humanitarian domain, seeking to ensure that the detainee is well, that he be released a dignified treatment that can be defended by a lawyer “.
On the other hand, the international rules that “govern consular relations between States with regard to the consular protection of citizens with dual nationality, consular assistance by this Consulate General is formally excluded in cases where the individuals in question are in the country of your other nationality “.
The Portuguese Consul General in Macau and Hong Kong, Paulo Cunha Alves, indicated that “in coordination with the Portuguese Embassy in Beijing and with the Consulate General of Portugal in Guangzhou, contacts are underway with the competent authorities of the People’s Republic of China”.
On Monday, Hong Kong police said they had intercepted 12 people at sea, involved in “several cases” in the former British colony, including attempted arson, possession of offensive weapons, collusion with a foreign country, riots and possession of explosives. , according to a statement quoted by the American newspaper Washington Post.
Hong Kong courts had banned 11 of those people from leaving the city and three were wanted, police added.
The group of 11 men and a woman, aged between 16 and 33, intended to arrive in Taiwan, having started their trip on 23 August. Hours after they left, the vessel was seized by the coast guard in the Chinese province of Guangdong, 50 miles southeast of the Sai Kung peninsula, the Washington Post reported.
According to Hong Kong police, the 12 people were accused of illegally entering Chinese territory and were detained in mainland China.
Among the vessel’s detainees and passengers, there is Tsz Lun Kok, 19, a citizen with a Portuguese passport and a student at the University of Hong Kong, according to the daily.
The case comes almost a month after the national security law imposed by Beijing on June 30 came into force.
National security law criminalizes secessionist, subversive and terrorist acts, as well as collusion with foreign forces to interfere in city affairs.
The legislationt came into force on June 30, after repeated warnings by the Beijing government against dissent in Hong Kong, shaken in 2019 by seven months of demonstrations in defense of democratic reforms and often marked by clashes with the police, which led to the detention of more than nine thousand people.
