HONG KONG, China–Hong Kong national security police on Monday took in family members of businessman-turned-activist Elmer Yuen for questioning, one of the eight fugitives with bounties on their heads for allegedly breaching national security.
The city announced this month that eight pro-democracy activists, all of whom now live overseas, are wanted for national security crimes, and offered rewards of HK$1 million ($128,000) for each of them.
Since then, police have targeted at least seven family members of three of those wanted -- lawmakers Nathan Law and Dennis Kwok, as well as unionist Mung Siu-tat -- taking them in for questioning before releasing them.
On Monday, the relatives of 74-year-old Elmer Yuen were also taken in. The US-based businessman became a vocal activist for foreign sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials during the city's huge, and sometimes violent, democracy movement in 2019.
His daughter-in-law Eunice Yung, a pro-Beijing legislator in Hong Kong who has publicly severed ties with Yuen, told reporters that national security police arrived at her home early Monday with a search warrant.
They took her and her husband, Derek -- Yuen's son -- to two separate police stations for hours of questioning.
"For questions (they asked that) I do not know -- such as some inside stories, his current whereabouts, his residential address and phone number -- I plainly said I don't know," Yung said, reiterating her support for the investigation.
"I believe the police are determined to look for strong evidence from family members of the eight fugitives and to locate the eight people," she told reporters.
Yung openly severed her ties with Elmer Yuen in 2022 by making declarations disavowing him in newspapers.
She has also staunchly supported the enactment of Beijing's sweeping national security law, imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell the democracy protests that kicked off the year before.
Still married to Yuen's son, the pro-Beijing legislator said being brought in on Monday "has not yet affected my relationship with Derek Yuen".
He was released Monday afternoon and escorted out by police to waiting reporters, according to a live TV broadcast.
Local media reported that one of Yuen's two daughters was also taken in for questioning, though AFP has not confirmed that.
Hong Kong's leader John Lee said during his visit to Singapore on Monday that the national security police would "meticulously follow up on every possible lead" to investigate the wanted activists and "the forces behind them".
"It's possible that our actual rivals are some with great powers, and even some backed by state powers, so we must investigate like spinning silk from cocoons," he said.
Lee stressed that the national security law "targets only a very small number of people… in order to protect the vast majority of law-abiding people".
Since Hong Kong issued the bounties, five of Law's former colleagues have been arrested over allegations of providing support to the fugitives. They have since been released on bail.
So far, police have arrested 260 people under the national security law, with 79 of them convicted or awaiting sentencing in Hong Kong.