China’s Macau jails ex-lawmaker in first national security trial

A court in the Chinese territory Macau sentenced on Nov 6 former lawmaker and democracy campaigner Au Kam San to 12½ years in prison for subversion and other offences.



Au, 69, is the first person convicted under national security laws widened in 2023 in Macau, the former Portuguese colony and casino hub which reverted to China in 1999.



He co-organised annual vigils for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, something previously tolerated only in Macau and neighbouring Hong Kong.



Au, detained in July 2025 and whose closed-door trial concluded in September in three days, was found guilty of "subversion against the political power of the State" among other offences, a court statement said.



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", it said.