cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31221791

A small number of Melbourne residents have received anonymous letters purporting to offer a police bounty of $203,000 if they inform on Kevin Yam, an Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist wanted for alleged national security crimes in Hong Kong, linking him to two nearby locations.

A spokesperson for the [Australian] foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, [said] the letter was “deeply worrying” and that the matter would be raised directly with officials from China and Hong Kong.

The anonymous letter – mailed from Hong Kong and delivered to some Melbourne homes on Friday – contained a photograph of Yam with a headline alleging he was a “wanted person”. It then detailed a range of alleged “national security related offences” and offered HK$1m (A$203,000) from the Hong Kong police to anyone who provided information on his whereabouts or took him to Hong Kong or Australian police.

Yam is a lawyer who lived in Hong Kong for 20 years before returning to Australia in 2022. He is one of eight overseas-based activists, the subject of Hong Kong police arrest warrants, accused in July 2023 of breaching its controversial national security law that grants authorities sweeping extraterritorial powers to prosecute acts or comments made anywhere in the world that it deems criminal.

Yam has criticised the crackdown on dissent and erosion of judicial independence in the Chinese-controlled city and has been accused of encouraging foreign governments to impose sanctions against members of the judiciary, prosecutors and government officials.

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