Three men are set to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court in central London later Monday charged with assisting Hong Kong’s foreign intelligence service and foreign interference under national security laws. File photo by Andy Rain/EPA
May 13 (UPI) — Three men are set to appear in court in London later Monday charged with assisting Hong Kong’s foreign intelligence service and foreign interference under national security laws.
The accused are Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, of Staines-upon-Thames, Matthew Trickett, 37, of Maidenhead and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, of Hackney, London, who were arrested earlier this month in a counter-terrorism operation in which 11 people were detained in raids across the country, the Met Police said in a news release.
Eight men and a woman were arrested by counter-terrorism police officers on May 1, 200 miles north of the capital in Yorkshire. The next day two men were arrested in the Yorkshire area and in London. All 11 were detained on suspicion of offenses under the National Security Act.
Seven men and a woman who were not charged were released from custody on Friday.
“While these offenses are concerning, I want to reassure the public that we do not believe there to be any wider threat to them,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, who stressed that the operation was not linked to a counter-terrorism operation last month that saw two Britons being charged with aiding Russian intelligence.
Dylan Earl, 20, from Leicestershire and Jake Reeves, 22, from London, were charged in connection with a suspected arson attack on a Ukraine-owned warehouse in London in March.
Earl was also charged with aggravated arson and preparatory acts endangering a person’s life or creating a serious risk to public safety contrary to the 2023 National Security Act while Reeves was charged with aggravated arson and receiving payment from a foreign intelligence service.
Earl appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday where a judge set a trial date for June 2025.
He was allegedly taking instructions from Russia’s Wagner Group, a paramilitary organization that Britain designates as a terror group and is therefore banned.
