Macau Jails Ex-Lawmaker Au Kam San For 12½ Years In First National Security Trial
Family condemns closed-door trial as political persecution as rights groups warn of chilling message
A court in Macau on Friday sentenced former lawmaker and democracy campaigner Au Kam San, 69, to 12½ years in prison for subversion and other offences, in the Chinese territory’s first national security trial. Au, the first person convicted under national security laws widened in 2023, was detained in July 2025 and found guilty after a three-day closed-door trial that concluded in September. The court found him guilty of subversion against the political power of the state, breach of confidentiality, and establishing contact with organisations outside Macau to commit acts endangering national security, accusing him of assisting hostile organisations over a long period in collecting and disseminating political views laden with subversive ideas and false information.
Justice Abroad said in a statement in July that Au’s family had not been permitted to see or speak to him since shortly after he was detained, receiving only one telephone call lasting less than a minute the day after his arrest. “My father dedicated more than 30 years of his life to serving the people of Macau,” his daughter Cherry was quoted as saying in the statement. “Nearly a year has passed, and we are still unable to communicate with him.” The court said on Friday that it has approved prison visits for Au’s family, but his wife Virginia Cheang Mio San wrote in an open letter on Friday: “From a closed-door trial to a public sentencing, what kind of process is that? It is a political trial. It is baseless persecution that tramples on a person’s dignity!”
Michael Polak, director of Justice Abroad and a London barrister who said he acts as Au’s international counsel, said on Friday that the “sham trial” of the Portuguese citizen “brings shame upon Macao.” His fate “brings Macao 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 said. Only a handful of local media were admitted into the courtroom for sentencing, with officials blaming limited seating.
Au was a teacher but after the 1989 crackdown in China, he came to believe that Macau urgently needed to become an open, democratic society, and entered politics. “I admit that in the fight for democracy, we have accomplished nothing, but I believe in sowing seeds and giving them a chance to grow,” he told AFP in 2024. “Even though we are in a bitter winter, if there are changes to the external environment, these seeds in Macau may yet have a chance to sprout and forge a new path towards democracy,” he said. Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director Maya Wang said Friday that the “unjust prosecution and harsh sentencing… sends a chilling message to all peaceful critics in the territory,” calling for pressure from Portugal and the European Union. The sentencing came a day after Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong was sentenced to 10 more years in jail under the territory’s national security law.
