A Hong Kong magistrate on Tuesday ordered the confiscation of HK$750,000 (US$96,770) in bail money and sureties in a case involving one of 12 protesters now in Shenzhen detention following a foiled escape to Taiwan.

The protester, 29-year-old technician Wong Wai-yin, failed to appear in Fanling Court on Tuesday over charges of making dinitrotoluene (DNT) explosives in Sheung Shui in January.

China’s coast guard captured Wong and 11 other Taiwan-bound Hongkongers on Aug. 23 in mainland waters for illegally crossing the border. The group were remanded in custody in Yantian, a town in Shenzhen bordering Hong Kong.

Principal magistrate Don So confiscated a HK$600,000 bail and HK$150,000 sureties previously submitted for Wong’s conditional release, and approved a request by defense lawyers to quit the case. The lawyers had said that their client had not given them any further instructions.

Prosecutors told the court they learnt on Aug. 28 that Wong remained in mainland Chinese custody. The defendant had failed to report to a police station since Aug. 23, they said.

In February, the conditions laid down by the High Court for Wong’s release on bail were that he had to surrender his travel documents, report to Sheung Shui police station daily and observe a curfew. Closed-circuit television cameras were installed at Wong’s home, the warehouse where he worked and three other locations upon the police’s request.

A mainland lawyer appointed by Wong’s family to represent him had not been able to meet him yet, the family said outside court on Tuesday.

The Hong Kong government had given them little assistance, claiming only that it could relay correspondence to Wong through Hong Kong’s representative office in Shenzhen, the family said.

When asked why lawyers appointed by the 12 arrested Hongkongers had been unable to meet their clients, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said jurisdiction of the cases belonged to the mainland and it was “very appropriate” for mainland agencies to handle them.

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