Macau, Nov 7 (IANS) A Macau court has sentenced former pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam San to 12.5 years in prison in the casino hub’s first national security case following a closed-door trial, a report said.
The court found Au guilty of subversion against the political power of the state and of establishing contact with organisations, groups or people outside Macau to commit acts endangering national security, The Independent reported.
Au “personally provided, over a long period of time, assistance and collaboration to external hostile organisations in the collection, preparation, and public dissemination of various images and information that were manifestly filled with political claims of a subversive nature against the political authority of the state,” the court said, according to the report.
His arrest in 2025 was the first publicly known prosecution under Macau’s national security law since it was enacted in 2009. Since his arrest, Au has been barred from contacting his family and accessing a private lawyer, his family has alleged.
His trial was held behind closed doors in September and concluded within three days. Michael Polak, director of Justice Abroad, who has been helping the family, called it a “sham” which has brought shame upon Macau.
Au, 69, holds joint Portuguese citizenship and is one of the most prominent opposition figures in Macau, having served as a lawmaker for two decades in a legislature dominated by Beijing loyalists.
Au’s trial and the “manufactured allegations” against him brought Macau “in line with the most repressive states around the world, where the executive has the power to imprison those with whom it disagrees, with no semblance of a proper, fair legal process”, Polak told The Independent.
A teacher-turned-lawmaker, Au stepped down from the legislature in 2021. He was also an organiser of Macau’s commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
Human Rights Watch said Macau’s unjust prosecution of Au sends a chilling message to all peaceful critics in the territory.
“The authorities’ silencing of pro-democracy voices in Macao reflects the Chinese government’s broader assault on dissent and fundamental freedoms,” Maya Wang, the group’s Deputy Asia Director, said, according to the report.
Critics say Chinese President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on dissent has reached the former Portuguese colony, which has operated, like Hong Kong, as a special administrative region since its return to Chinese rule in 1999.
The court earlier said the judge decided against an open trial to ensure that national security interests would not be undermined, The Independent reported.
--IANS
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