Former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying is seen in this file photo taken on Aug 14, 2019. (XINHUA)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong legal experts and political heavyweights said on Sunday it is “misleading” and factually unfounded for the United States politicians to name the 12 fugitives arrested while fleeing the city as “democracy activists”. 

The experts said the fugitives detained by mainland authority are guaranteed due process of law and of having their rights protected

The experts said the fugitives detained by mainland authority are guaranteed due process of law and of having their rights protected.

In August, 12 Hong Kong fugitives were detained by mainland coast guards as they tried to flee the city by speedboat to Taiwan. The group included opposition activist Andy Li Yu-hin, who was arrested on suspicion of violating the National Security Law. 

The Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Yantian Branch announced on Sunday that the 12 Hong Kong men were arrested on suspicion of illegally crossing the Chinese border. The case is under investigation and the legal rights of the suspects will be protected, according to the statement.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement on Friday, claimed that the US government is deeply concerned as the detainees “have been denied access to lawyers of their choice”. On Saturday, Morgan Ortagus, a spokesperson for the US Department of State, wrote on her twitter account that the detainment is a sign of “the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong”.

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Former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying said it is “extremely misleading” to describe the 12 suspects as “activists”.

Leung said the 12 individuals were charged with serious offenses — three of them in connection with the seizure of homemade bombs left outside Wah Yan College, two were involved in rioting, and one was arrested on suspicion of breaching the National Security Law. “More importantly, these suspects have deliberately planned to jump bail and abscond in an unlawful manner,” Leung wrote on a social media post. 

Law professor Willy Fu Kin-chi, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation, slammed US politicians’ statements as “based on political objectives rather than factual findings”.

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Fu said that it is untrue to say the detainees were denied access to lawyers of their choice. “In every country, a defendant can always replace his lawyers to defend his interests anytime during legal proceedings, I have seen it happen many times,” Fu said, adding that a government-appointed attorney in the mainland bears a resemblance to the legal aid service in Hong Kong. 

Fu pointed out that since this case could be linked to large-scale illegal immigration crime organized by snakeheads, it was “necessary” for the mainland law enforcement authorities to conduct an in-depth investigation first. Hence, the legal proceedings will be held in a reasonable time frame, Fu added. 

Fu said the US politicians have wrongfully sung the merits of the 12 detained individuals, and glorified their unlawful, violent deeds in the protests last year. The 12 individuals are not “democracy fighters” like the US politicians are attempting to depict them, Fu said, and he urged the US administration to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs. 

On Saturday, an Immigration Department spokesperson said their staff were assisting in the case and were in regular contact with the families of 10 of the 12 detainees. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s office in Guangdong had “learned from the authorities that the 12 Hong Kong people are currently in good physical condition and have hired representatives from mainland lawyers”.