Hong Kong national security law: who are the 8 targeted with HK$1 million bounties? Calls for sanctions, links to 2019 protests among alleged offences

Ex-legislators Nathan Law, Dennis Kwok, Ted Hui, unionist Mung Siu-tat, lawyer Kevin Yam, activists Finn Lau, Anna Kwok and Elmer Yuan are all currently overseas

Nearly all have urged sanctions on city, while most linked to 2019 social unrest and online calls for activism before and after leaving, according to police

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The eight suspects are (clockwise from top left) Kevin Yam, Elmer Yuan, Anna Kwok, Dennis Kwok, Nathan Law, Finn Lau, Mung Siu-tat and Ted Hui. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 9:00am, 4 Jul 2023Updated: 1:21pm, 4 Jul 2023

Evidence shows the eight fugitives with HK$1 million (US$127,600) bounties on their heads continue to threaten national security and seek to “destroy Hong Kong and intimidate officials” by calling for international sanctions, police have said.

The seven men and one woman, aged between 26 and 74, included well-known names who had left the city during the peak of the 2019 social unrest and after Beijing’s imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020.

Following police’s announcement of the bounties on Monday, the Post takes a closer look at fugitives’ backgrounds, alleged offences and political activities both during their time in Hong Kong and since their departure.

Kevin Yam Kin-fung, 46

Kevin Yam takes part in a rally in a support of a political reform bill in June 2015. He is now living in Melbourne according to his Facebook page, which has 6,947 followers. Photo: Felix Wong

Allegedly met overseas officials in November and December last year to instigate sanctions against members of the Hong Kong government and asked foreign countries to impose penalties against local judges and prosecutors in May this year.

Yam and other like-minded Hong Kong legal professionals co-founded the Progressive Lawyers Group in 2015, after the Occupy protests the previous year. It said its aim was to project the voice of local legal practitioners and uphold pro-democracy values.

Yam wrote a column in Ming Pao, a Chinese-language daily, before his contribution was discontinued last August.

The Progressive Lawyers Group disbanded in 2021.

Yam is now a board member of a UK-based group The 29 Principles which, according to its website, is “largely made up of Hongkongers living in quasi-exile” and “supports human rights lawyers working under authoritarian regimes”.