HK ACTIVIST SHOT BY COP SKIPS TRIAL, SAYS HE’S IN EXILE

A Hong Kong activist who was shot at point blank range by a police officer during clashes at a National Day protest and who failed to turn up at court on Tuesday, has declared he is in exile, Lisa Jane Harding reported for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

In a press statement, Friends of Hong Kong (FOHK), a British-based advocacy group whose mission it is to "support Hong Kong and uphold the values and interests of its people" according to its website, issued a statement from 19-year-old Tsang Chi-kin, which said he was in exile.

Earlier, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Tsang, who had been charged with rioting and two charges of assaulting a police officer, didn't turn up at court on Tuesday, after his lawyer said the defendant would plead guilty.

A year after he was shot, Tsang and four other activists unsuccessfully sought refuge in the US consulate.

Earlier, from an undisclosed location, Tsang told SCMP that the US rejection was akin to being "plunged from heaven to hell," saying his motivation was fear of being charged under the new national security law, which comes with hefty sentencing.

Tsang said his decision was part of a broader fight for Hong Kong against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

"Living by facing a so-called consequences of our actions and taking a rest from the HK [Hong Kong] pro-democracy movement of 2019-2020 will neither highlight the atrocities of... [CCP] nor support my fellow protesters who are tortured and killed," Tsang wrote.

The group added that Tsang would "never surrender himself to face political persecution from the Beijing controlled Hong Kong government and said he would "stand up the CCP for as long as he could."

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