Hong Kong envoy in the UK to plea with co-defendant over spying charges
A Hong Kong official and his alleged accomplice accused of spying in the UK will speak for the first time in court today, to answer for the charges brought against them in an unprecedented case under Britain’s national security law.
The hearing of Yuen Chung-biu (known as Bill Yuen), 64, who is manager of the Hong Kong Government’s Economic and Trade Office in London, and 38-year-old security firm owner and border force officer at Heathrow Airport Wai Chi-leung, aka Peter Wai, coincides with a delicate period when Britain and China restarted diplomatic dialogue aiming to achieve pragmatic relations.
The duo, who are on bail subject to police monitoring and curfew since their last court appearance on 24 May, are expected to make a plea at Court 13 of the Central Criminal Court in London at 11.30am before Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, who will oversee pre-trial preparation.
HKETO Deputy Director General Amy Wong Hoi-ling and Assistant Director General Stanley Woo Man-hong were spotted at the front of the public gallery early this morning, promptly facing the wall when journalists attempted to capture their image.
Yuen and Wai were arrested earlier this year for assisting a foreign intelligence service and foreign interference. They first appeared at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 13 May 2024. The court heard that between 20 December 2023 and 2 May this year, Yuen, Wai and the now-deceased third defendant Matthew Trickett agreed to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception that were likely to assist a foreign intelligence service, in contrary to section 3 (1) and (9) of the National Security Act 2023.
It is also alleged that they forced entry into a UK residential address on 1 May, being reckless as to whether the prohibited conduct, or course of conduct of which it forms part, would have an interference effect, contrary to section 13 (2) and (7) of the act.
The prosecution against Trickett, a former Royal Marine commando who was found dead at a Berkshire park under no suspicious cause of death just days before the last hearing at the Old Bailey, has since been discontinued.
Yuen and Wai – both with dual Chinese and British nationality, did not enter a plea at the last hearing. They were told to expect trial by jury at the Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court scheduled for 10 February 2025, with the hearing estimated to take up to six weeks.
The timing of the case – the first time Hong Kongers have been prosecuted under the UK’s new national security legislation, comes at a delicate time just days after Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s visit to Beijing last week.
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