Macau’s court sentenced former lawmaker and pro-democracy campaigner Au Kam San, 69, to 12 years and six months in jail on Friday, in the city’s first national security trial.
Au was convicted of "subversion against the political power of the state" among other offences, according to BBC World. He was found guilty of four of seven charges after a closed-door trial that lasted three days and ended in September, BBC World reported.
A court statement said Au personally assisted external hostile organisations in collecting, preparing and disseminating politically subversive images and information over a long period, according to The Hindu. The statement is the only official account of the case, and its claims cannot be independently checked because the proceedings were closed.
Au was detained in July 2025, according to The Hindu. Japan Times reported that he co-organised annual vigils in Macau marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, an event that had previously been tolerated in the city. The Japan Times item was available to us only as a headline and short excerpt.
Au’s wife, Virginia Cheang, condemned the ruling as a "groundless persecution designed to humiliate Au," according to BBC World. Au’s family, including his wife and three daughters, said they had not been allowed to see or speak with him since shortly after his detention, and had received only one call of under a minute, according to The Hindu. The family also said he was not allowed to choose his own lawyer and was assigned one by the court. These are the family’s claims, and no response from Macau authorities to them or to the sentence has been reported.
The family’s account of no contact comes from a July statement by Justice Abroad and has not been updated in the sources.
Macau was handed back to China in 1999. Its national security law took effect in 2009 and was revised in 2023 and again in 2026 to allow closed-door trials. The European Union last year condemned Au’s arrest, saying it heightened concerns about the "erosion of political pluralism" in Macau. Au’s sentence came a day after Hong Kong sentenced Joshua Wong to 10 years in jail.
Cheang said she hopes authorities will allow her and her family to write to and visit Au regularly in prison. The sources do not mention an appeal.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.