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Hong Kong extradition bill
Hong KongPolitics

Fugitives granted asylum in Germany say they faced ‘unfair trial’ and call on international community to oppose Hong Kong’s extradition bill

  • Ray Wong and Alan Li, who skipped bail in 2017 while awaiting trial on charges related to Mong Kok riot, granted refugee protection status last year
  • Pair appeared at a seminar organised by German Green Party commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown

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Ray Wong (third from left) and Alan Li (second from right) pictured at an event organised by the German Green Party to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. Photo: Cherie Chan
Cherie Chan

Two Hong Kong fugitives granted refugee protection status in Germany say they decided to flee because they faced an “unfair” trial, arguing they had a responsibility to draw international attention to the erosion of freedom in their hometown.

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Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Alan Li Tung-sing, who skipped bail in 2017 to avoid facing trial on charges related to the Mong Kok riot the previous year, made their first public appearance on Tuesday since news of their status came to light last month.

Wong said the pair left Hong Kong thinking the charges would be stacked against them in their trial.

“I thought the trial would be unfair, because the government had launched charges against us under the Public Order Ordinance, which was criticised by the United Nations Human Rights Council and [former Hong Kong governor] Chris Patten,” Wong said.

“Since we thought we would not have a fair trial, we had good reason to leave.”

Patten wrote to the Post last year that the use of the ordinance was a “direct contravention” of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
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