UK FM on prosecution of HK activists; Uighurs

UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab weighed in on the prosecution of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and the persecution of Uighur Muslims in China on Sunday. Raab questioned the integrity of British barrister David Perry, who has agreed to act for the Hong Kong government as it attempts to convict pro-democracy activists of taking part in an illegal assembly in 2019, saying the case could be "resisted" under the UK's legal code of ethics and that it appeared highly "mercenary."

If the case is heard in Hong Kong's District Court the defendants could receive a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Raab also called for High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN to be allowed to inspect China's internment camps for Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, and described their situation as a "truly shocking set of circumstances". Raab stopped short of labeling the oppression of the Uighurs as genocide but conceded that there were "convincing, persuasive third party authoritative reports of serious violations of human rights on an appalling industrial scale"