Family visits come to naught as nine of 47 detainees are moved elsewhere
Family members of nine of the Hong Kong democracy advocates charged with subversion could not see them in detention on Friday because the detainees were in the midst of being transferred to another location.
The wives of district councilor Lester Shum and former lawmaker Eddie Chu had gone to the Lai Chi Kok Reception Center in the morning hoping to visit their husbands, whom they had not seen face to face since Sunday.
They ended up waiting for one and a half hours before correctional services officers told them that no visit could be arranged as Shum and Chu were being moved elsewhere.
“I don’t even know where to visit him tomorrow,” Shum’s wife Yu Sze-long said, adding that she felt very disappointed and helpless.
Apple Daily later learned, citing sources, that the two detainees would be sent to a maximum-security prison in Stanley along with Owen Chow, Andrew Chiu and five others.
The night before, all 47 pro-democracy politicians and activists were returned to their cells following another long day in court. No one was released on bail despite the magistrate approving the applications of 15 of them, because the Department of Justice had filed an appeal against the court decision there and then. The department on Friday afternoon partly rescinded its appeal, so four of the defendants would be out on bail.
Earlier in the morning, a number of family and friends showed up and queued in front of the center, where the 39 male defendants were staying, to meet their detained relatives.
Yu said that she arrived at 9 a.m. and registered for the visit without any problem. It was not until much later that officers said Shum was among nine people being transferred out. The daily necessities that she had prepared for him would not be passed on, Yu learned.
She slammed the Correctional Services Department for the confusion and lack of transparency, and said that she had been unable to contact social welfare officers over the phone.
Chu’s wife encountered the same situation. He had been remanded in custody for a few days and yet she was still unable to send him basic items for personal hygiene, such as toothpaste and a toothbrush.
Most of the 47 had been locked up since Sunday and then taken to court for an unprecedented marathon hearing which lasted for four days.
The court arrangements on the first day of the proceedings have attracted criticism for failing to provide for meal times. All the detainees stayed in the courtroom overnight, and some were so exhausted that they had to be sent to hospital. They managed to take cold showers on Tuesday night.
The marathon court session was like what would happen in the third world, said Johannes Chan, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong.
Chan said the magistrate presiding over the session should have been well aware that even if the court had stayed open overnight, it would have been impossible to finish the proceedings. He called for the detainees’ basic humanitarian rights to be protected.
Barrister Ronny Tong, a government adviser, said that the situation was “sad but probably inevitable.” The magistrate, Victor So, should be the one to draw sympathy, not the detainees, as he could not rest even as the defendants were able to take a nap during the session, Tong said.
Meanwhile, social worker and former lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun, who was helping the affected families, had some words of advice for those who had been crying. Drawing from his own experience, Shiu said: “People in custody have only one belief: so long as you [relatives] out there are safe, those inside will be safe.
“Comb your hair and take a shower before visiting them. When the ones in custody see you in good health and spirits, they will have the strength to carry on.”
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