A Chinese lawyer was forced by authorities to back out of representing a Hongkonger arrested on the mainland, Apple Daily has learned.

The lawyer was hired to represent Kok Tsz-lun, a university student who has been held at Yantian District Detention Center for over a month. He quit the assignment after Chinese authorities contacted him — even though he was still in the process of registering as Kok’s representative and hadn’t yet met his new client.

Chinese authorities pressured the lawyer into dropping the case, saying that it was a direct request from a member of the local Communist Party’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, a source told Apple Daily.

Kok was among the 12 Hongkongers arrested by mainland Chinese authorities for crossing the boundary illegally. They boarded a speedboat on Aug. 23 and planned to flee to Taiwan to “evade criminal responsibility in Hong Kong,” Hong Kong police said on Saturday.

The case is under investigation by the Yantian branch of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau and will be submitted to the local prosecutors to formally approve the arrests, the Hong Kong police added.

Chinese authorities wanted to prevent lawyers from visiting the Yantian District Detention Center because the deadline for getting official approval for the arrest was nearing, activist Owen Chow told Apple Daily.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to find Chinese lawyers willing to take up the case, but the defendants' family will try their best to secure bail before the trial, Chow added. “We can’t give up on any of the possible routes,” he said.

At least six Chinese lawyers have backed out of representing the Hong Kong 12, and Kok’s lawyers have been changed twice.

It was unusual that Chinese authorities managed to identify Kok’s new lawyer even before his first appointment with his client, the source said. Lawyers are required to get notarial certificates to prove they have been appointed by the defendant’s family, and it was possible the lawyer’s identity was leaked in the process, the source said.

The 12 Hongkongers have previously been arrested by the city’s police for protest-related offenses, and are the first group of Hong Kong demonstrators detained by mainland Chinese authorities since the passage of the city’s national security law on June 30.

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