Former lawmaker Au Kam San jailed for 12 and a half years in Macau's first national security case

Macau has sentenced former lawmaker and pro-democracy campaigner Au Kam San to 12 years and six months in jail in the city's first national security case. Au, 69, was convicted on Friday, following a closed-door trial, of "subversion against the political power of the state", among other offences.

Au's wife Virginia Cheang condemned the ruling, calling the case a groundless persecution designed to humiliate Au. In an open letter on Friday, she said she hoped authorities would grant her and her family permission to regularly write to and visit Au in prison. She said she dared not hope for more, as she believed that would only lead to greater disappointment.

Au was arrested in July 2025 and later charged with three counts of subverting the state's power, three counts of endangering national security by establishing contact with foreign organisations, and one count of breach of confidentiality — seven charges in total. He was found guilty of four of the seven charges following a three-day trial which ended in September.

Prosecutors accused Au of assisting and collaborating with "external hostile organisations" over a long period of time, by collecting, preparing and disseminating information that was, in the prosecutors' words, manifestly filled with political claims of a subversive nature against the state.

A judge had ordered that the trial be held behind closed doors to ensure that no prejudice was caused to the interests of national security. Macau's authorities never publicly disclosed the details of the case. Au's family had earlier told the media that Au was not allowed to seek his own legal representation and had instead been assigned a lawyer by the court.

Macau was handed back to China in 1999, ending over 400 years of Portuguese administration. Its national security law came into effect in 2009, criminalising acts of treason, secession, and subversion against the Chinese Communist Party. The law was revised in 2023, broadening its scope to include non-violent acts of secession, and again this year, to allow for trials to be held behind closed doors.

Au, who was formerly a primary school teacher, was elected to the Legislative Assembly in September 2001 and served for 20 years. He was one of only a handful of pro-democracy lawmakers in a legislature largely made up of pro-Beijing loyalists.

Au had co-organised annual vigils in Macau to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing. These vigils were previously tolerated in places like Macau and Hong Kong, but have effectively been banned in both cities since China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020.

Au's jailing comes a day after Hong Kong sentenced Joshua Wong, the face of its now-quashed democracy movement, to 10 years in jail. Wong, 30, whose activism started when he was a teenager, has been in custody for the last six years.