Shenzhen Detainees Should Be Home Soon: Lawyer

A mainland lawyer working for the family of one of 12 Hong Kong people detained in Shenzhen said on Wednesday that he expects all of the detainees to be back in the SAR soon.

Lu Siwei said he thinks court proceedings against 10 of them will begin around the end of this year, and will be completed next month.

He estimated that the eight people charged with crossing the border illegally will be given jail sentences of under six months, and they will have already served much of this time being as they were detained in August.

Lu said the two people accused of organising the crossing will likely be given two-year suspended jail terms, and Hong Kong and Shenzhen would have to look at how the pair could fulfil this punishment back in the SAR.

He said his "optimistic estimate" is that these 10 detainees will be back in Hong Kong before Lunar New Year in February.

The other two members of the group, who are minors, are likely to return even sooner, he said, because they will probably not be charged.

The lawyer added that two relatives of each of the defendants should be permitted to attend the court proceedings.

Lu and other lawyers hired by the families have been denied access to the 12, who are believed to have instead been given lawyers appointed by the mainland authorities.

The young Hongkongers were picked up by the Guangdong coast guard while allegedly trying to flee from the SAR to Taiwan by speedboat.

Eleven of them were suspected of protest-related offences in Hong Kong, and one had been arrested, but not charged, under the national security law.