Hong Kong police on Saturday confirmed 12 Taiwan-bound residents captured by mainland Chinese authorities were arrested for crossing the boundary illegally, and that the case would go to Yantian prosecutors in Shenzhen for arrest approval.

The 12 boarded a speedboat arranged by a smuggling syndicate at the Po Toi O pier around 7 a.m. on Aug. 23, and one of them steered the vessel, the police said in a press release issued on Saturday night.

Contained in the press release was an announcement from Guangdong coast guard that the boat was intercepted in waters under its jurisdiction at the coordinates 21°54′00′'N and 114°53′00′' E about 26 nautical miles (30 miles) off the southeastern side of the Hong Kong-mainland boundary.

“They planned to flee to Taiwan via mainland marine waters in order to evade criminal responsibility in Hong Kong” after they were arrested or charged for protest-related cases, the police said.

The official confirmation came after days of speculation about the exact location and date of the arrests, with some suggesting they had been nabbed in Hong Kong waters on Aug. 25 instead.

In the press release, the police cited information provided by the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, as well as the Marine Department’s vessel traffic services system and the marine police’s digital radar security system in Hong Kong.

They said the speedboat entered mainland waters through the southeastern side of the Hong Kong sea boundary around 7:30 a.m., then passed through the effective detection range of the systems. The latest detectable time of the boat by the marine police’s radar system was around 8 a.m., when it was 10.9 nautical miles outside Hong Kong waters and heading toward the southeast.

The 12 had paid a smuggling syndicate a fee before boarding the speedboat, the police said, adding that the investigations were focusing on organized cross-boundary crime.

The Yantian branch of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau was also investigating the case and would submit it to the Yantian People’s Procuratorate in Shenzhen for arrest approval, the Hong Kong police said, meaning that the 12 would be detained further.

A pan-democratic lawmaker in Hong Kong said that the latest police claims of organized cross-boundary criminal involvement, as well as the Hong Kong offenses of which the 12 were previously accused, were heavier than the mainland offense of illegal border crossing.

In this light, the Hong Kong government should extradite them back to the city for trial, Democratic Party lawmaker James To said.

The 12 should be allowed to meet with mainland lawyers appointed by their families in accordance with mainland laws, To said. The Hong Kong police should also release more details of the case, such as the exact coordinates where they were intercepted and the relevant maps, he added.

Another pro-democracy lawmaker, Eddie Chu, said that the press release proved the 12 were being unlawfully detained. Even if one started counting the number of days in detention from Aug. 25, when the mainland announced the arrests, instead of the actual arrest date of Aug. 23, the 12 had been detained for 33 days, Chu said.

Mainland authorities should have applied for arrest approval from the procuratorate within 30 days according to mainland laws, he said.

Police did not explain in their press release how the Marine Department and the marine police recognized the speedboat, a concern group of the case said. It accused the police of either lying, or knowing the identity of the speedboat beforehand and helping the mainland Chinese to intercept it.

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