Overview
- An Old Bailey jury, delivering its verdict Thursday, found Peter Wai and Bill Yuen guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act.
- Wai was also convicted of misconduct in public office for using Home Office databases to look up people of interest to Hong Kong authorities while working for UK Border Force.
- Jurors could not agree on a separate foreign‑interference charge linked to a planned forced entry in Pontefract, prosecutors said there will be no retrial, and sentencing is set for May 15.
- Prosecutors showed messages, call records and payments from Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office accounts as Yuen tasked and paid Wai to surveil dissidents and politicians, including photos of activist Nathan Law and attention to MP Iain Duncan Smith.
- Following the convictions, the UK government summoned China’s ambassador and called the activity an infringement of UK sovereignty, signaling sharper scrutiny of foreign‑directed targeting of exiles in Britain.