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27-05-2024
BEIJING/ LONDON: China has accused the UK of false accusations, “wanton stigmatization” and arbitrary arrests after the unexplained death of a man charged with illegally assisting Hong Kong’s foreign intelligence service.
China’s foreign ministry office in Hong Kong said in a statement on its website on Saturday that it strongly condemned Britain for what it said were false accusations against Chinese citizens, infringing their lawful rights.
Britain’s acts were “a wanton stigmatization of China and arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of Chinese citizens in the United Kingdom”, it said.
Tensions between Beijing and London have been rising over China’s sweeping national security crackdown since 2019, when sometimes violent pro-democracy protests swept Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to Beijing’s control in 1997.
Matthew Trickett, 37, a former Royal Marine who worked as an immigration officer and private investigator, was found dead in a park in the west of London on Sunday.
He had been granted bail along with Chung Biu Yuen, 63, an office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and Chi Leung Wai, 38, also known as Peter Wai, who works as a UK Border Force officer.
The three were charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service between December and May by “agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception” in Britain.
Hong Kong’s secretary for commerce and economic development, Algernon Yau, meeting with Britain’s deputy counsel general, urged Britain to let the public “know the truth” about Trickett’s death, Yau’s department said on Thursday.
Yuen and Wai, who have not yet entered pleas, were told by Judge Jeremy Baker that their trial, expected to last five weeks, had been set for February and they would next appear in court on 25 October.
Matthew Trickett was found by a member of the public in a park near where he lived in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
Thames Valley police said officers attended and administered emergency treatment but he was pronounced dead at the scene in Grenfell Park on Sunday. The force said: “An investigation is ongoing into the death, which is currently being treated as unexplained.”
Trickett appeared in court along with two other men last week accused of monitoring, surveillance and harassment of pro-democracy activists in the UK.
His profile on LinkedIn lists him as being a former Royal Marine commando. He was in the marines between 2007 and 2013.
Trickett, Chung Biu Yuen, 63 and Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, were charged with unlawfully assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service and engaging in foreign interference by forcing entry into a British address.
The three spoke only to confirm their names, ages and addresses at an initial hearing at Westminster magistrate’s court. They were not asked for a plea. They were due to appear at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Thames Valley police detectives are investigating whether anyone else was involved in the death, and the official designation of “unexplained” means they are yet to find anything suspicious or pointing to homicide.
During the earlier hearing, the court was told that while in custody Trickett had attempted to take his own life and made threats to his own life.
Kashif Malik, prosecuting, informed the judge Louisa Cieciora: “He told two separate custody sergeants when he is released he is going to kill himself because ‘he has nothing to live for’. How realistic that is, judge, we don’t know, but that is a concern for us.” The judge granted bail. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
