Hong Kong national security police are searching for a group of nearly 10 people who allegedly duped four wanted protesters out of more than HK$400,000 (US$51, 280) under the pretence of helping them to flee the city and also used them to raise funds for their own benefit.
The Post has learned that the group is thought to have lied to the four anti-government demonstrators by claiming a boat journey to Taiwan had been arranged for them and then tipping off police to arrest them in Sai Kung before dawn on Wednesday.
Describing them as a “gang of con artists”, a force insider said at least three of them, including members of a London-based anti-China group, had left for the British capital. The alleged ringleader is understood to be a YouTuber – and solicitor – who has also left for Britain.
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On Wednesday night, officers from the force’s National Security Department arrested a 34-year-old suspected group member who was responsible for delivering food to the four protesters. The group had previously persuaded the four, aged 16 to 24, to try to seek refuge at the US consulate in October 2020 but they were turned away.
The four include Tsang Chi-kin, 21, who survived being shot in the chest during a violent protest in Tsuen Wan on October 1, 2019, at the height of social unrest in Hong Kong. Police on Thursday revealed the plight of the four, who had previously missed various legal proceedings, after they were arrested following a 20-month period in hiding in the city.
It is understood the protesters were stuffed into carton boxes and “inhumanely” treated as cargo while being moved to three different hideouts – two industrial units and a flat – all in Tsuen Wan.
Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah, of the National Security Department, revealed that the group had approached and persuaded people who were under trial to flee the city since early 2020. The four had paid a total of HK$400,000 to the group in advance. The money was transferred into several local bank accounts.
Li described their living conditions as “very poor”, and without windows in the industrial units. The group had also stopped paying for their rent and providing them with food this year, he said.
“They had not left the flat for a single step for more than a year,” Li told the media on Thursday. “They did not have a hair cut, and looked thin and pale when we intercepted them. Even some of our colleagues, who had been following the case, could not recognise them at first sight.”
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While the four absconders laid low in their final hideout – a flat in the Tai Wo Hau area of Tsuen Wan – the group claimed they could not afford expenses including food and asked them to pay more than HK$10,000 a month for the rent over the past three months.
During their ordeal, each of the four was asked to make videos of themselves with their mobile phones regularly for crowdfunding appeals.
Li said the investigation suggested the four protesters had not received a penny from crowdfunding and police were trying to establish how much had been raised. He also appealed to those who were in a similar situation to the four demonstrators to come forward.
In the early hours of Wednesday, the four took a taxi from Tsuen Wan to the Pak Tam Chung bus terminal on Tai Mong Tsai Road in Sai Kung, where police were waiting in ambush and arrested them shortly before 4.30am.
“I feel really sad and shocked by their experience. Why did they have to live in fear for two years and waste their youth?” Li said. “The group is eating steamed buns dipped in human blood.”
Three of them – Tsang, Fung Ching-wah and an adolescent boy – were taken to the District Court in Wan Chai on Thursday afternoon. They were wearing T-shirts and had long hair. They did not apply for bail.
Prosecutors said there was an “extremely high” risk of the trio absconding, as it was reasonable to believe they were attempting to flee to Taiwan. They had also been hiding out for nearly two years since being absent in legal proceedings and did not report to a police station.
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The court heard that a tip-off led to their arrests. They were said to be carrying bags of belongings including mobile phones, SIM cards, clothes, and each had NT$10,000 (HK$2,630). Police had also seized £200 from one of the defendants.
The subsequent proceedings are scheduled for September 13.
The fourth absconder, Ansen Wong, will return to Eastern Magistrates’ Courts at the end of August on charges of taking part in an unlawful assembly and possession of a dangerous drug.
During the 2019 social unrest, Tsang, a secondary school student, was shot in the chest at point-blank range by a police officer who was coming to the aid of a colleague under attack in Tsuen Wan.
After the incident, Tsang was charged with rioting and two counts of assaulting a police officer. He had attended legal proceedings and made his last appearance in October 2020 at the District Court, days before his failed asylum bid at the US consulate.
On December 21, 2020, he did not show up in court and Judge Justin Ko King-sau issued a warrant for his arrest.
The Post managed to contact Tsang in 2020 but he refused to disclose details of his life in hiding, only revealing that his accommodation and daily expenses were provided by Friends of Hong Kong, a London-based, anti-China group that was also behind the suspects’ asylum bids.
Friends of Hong Kong released a statement on December 21, 2020 pledging its continued support for protesters such as Tsang, saying it was glad his case had drawn international attention, including that of the US government.
The group had also said Tsang would never surrender himself to face political persecution from the Beijing-controlled Hong Kong government.
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