CBS News
Hong Kong’s jailing of 45 democracy activists sparks criticism from foreign governments, rights groups
Forty-five prominent activists in Hong Kong were sentenced to jail for up to 10 years on Tuesday, sparking criticism from foreign governments and rights groups. Beijing defended the decisions.
The democracy advocates were among 47 people charged under a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2021 for their involvement in an unofficial primary election to pick opposition candidates. In the city’s biggest national security case to date, they were accused of agreeing to veto government-proposed budgets after potentially securing a legislative majority to force a dissolution of the legislature and the ouster of the city’s leader.
The case involved pro-democracy figures. Thirty-one of them pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit subversion. Fourteen others were convicted following a long trial. Two were acquitted.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her government is “gravely concerned” by the sentences for Australian citizen Gordon Ng and the other activists. Wong said Australia has expressed strong objections to authorities in China and Hong Kong over the continuing broad application of national security legislation.
Catherine West, minister for the Indo-Pacific in Britain’s Foreign Office, said the sentencing demonstrates how Hong Kong authorities use the security law to criminalize political dissent.
“Those sentenced today were exercising their right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of political participation,” she said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said no one should be allowed to use democracy as a pretext to engage in unlawful activities and escape justice. Lin said certain Western countries ignored that they maintain their own national security through judicial procedures while unreasonably criticizing Hong Kong courts for “fairly implementing” the security law.
Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images
“This severely violates and tramples on the spirit of the rule of law,” he said at a news briefing.
He said Beijing firmly opposes what he described as certain Western countries’ interference in China’s internal affairs and their attempts to smear Hong Kong’s rule of law.
The European Union called the sentencing “another unprecedented blow” against the city’s fundamental freedoms, democratic participation and pluralism.
The bloc said in a statement that its members are deeply concerned about the politically motivated prosecution of people engaging in peaceful political activity. It said such activities should be legitimate in any political system that respects basic democratic principles.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said the activists’ plan was to undermine, destroy or overthrow the city’s political system.
The government said the case was handled strictly in accordance with the law.
Hong Kong Security Minister Chris Tang said the sentences reflect the severity of the offenses. Tang said national security helps safeguard the city’s prosperity, so his government takes any violations of the law seriously.
“Different people may have different judgments about whether the sentencing is appropriate. But I think the important point is the rule of law,” he said in a news briefing.
Taiwan presidential office spokesperson Karen Kuo said democracy is not a crime and condemned the Chinese government for using what she called unjust procedures to suppress the political participation and freedom of speech of Hong Kong pro-democracy figures.
The sentencing “not only breaks the promises of ’50 years unchanged’ and ‘high degree of autonomy,’ but further proves that ‘one country, two systems’ is unfeasible,” she said in a statement.
When Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, Beijing promised to retain its Western-style civil liberties for 50 years under the governing principle of “one country, two systems.”
Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he is gravely concerned by the use of the security law to criminalize conduct protected by the human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.
“We will continue to engage with the Chinese authorities as we have done in the past,” he said.
The State Department said it “strongly” condemned the sentences and called on Hong Kong authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release the 45 individuals and similarly detained political prisoners.”
“These harsh sentences erode confidence in Hong Kong’s judicial system and harm the city’s international reputation,” said spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday.
The department said it plans to “impose new visa restrictions on multiple Hong Kong officials responsible for implementing” the security law.
The U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong said the defendants were aggressively prosecuted and jailed for participating in normal political activity protected under the city’s mini-constitution, and called for their immediate release.
In Washington, D.C., the chairs of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission said the sentences violate international law and called for wide condemnation. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, asked the Biden administration to sanction judges and prosecutors responsible for “undermining democracy and human rights in Hong Kong.”
“These politically motivated prosecutions are occurring at the same time that dozens of U.S. CEOs are being wined and dined by Hong Kong officials and urged to invest in Hong Kong,” the lawmakers said. “Each of these U.S. financial titans should be asked whether the Hong Kong government’s mass detentions of political prisoners and regular bulldozing of the rule of law undermine the city’s attractiveness as an international commercial and financial center.”
Hong Kong’s last British governor, Chris Patten, said in a statement the sentencing was “not only an affront to the people of Hong Kong, but those who value rights and freedoms around the world.”
He condemned the “sham” sentences and urged the British government not to allow the results of the case to go unnoticed. He said the activists were an integral part of the city’s pro-democracy movement.
Amnesty International China director Sarah Brooks said the people convicted in the “politically motivated” case should not spend even a day in jail.
“None of the 45 people sentenced have committed an internationally recognized crime; they have been jailed only for exercising their human rights,” she said.
Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Running in an election and trying to win it is now a crime that can lead to a decade in prison in Hong Kong.”
Wang said the harsh sentences reflect how fast Hong Kong’s civil liberties and judicial independence have nosedived in the past four years since the security law was introduced.
The Biden administration will provide Ukraine with controversial anti-personnel mines in its war against Russia, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News Tuesday night.
Anti-personnel mines, or APLs, are designed to be used against people, not vehicles. They can be rapidly deployed and are meant to blunt the advances of ground forces, making them useful for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s advances in Eastern Ukraine, the official said.
The U.S. sought commitments from the Ukrainians on their use to further limit the risk to civilians, the official said, noting that Ukrainians are committed to not employing the mines in areas populated with their own civilians.
The U.S.-provided APLs are different than the thousands of landmines being employed by Russia in eastern Ukraine in that they are “non-persistent,” meaning they become inert over a preset period of time, usually between four hours and two weeks, the official said. They are electrically fused and require battery power to detonate. Once the battery runs out, they will not detonate.
Tuesday marked 1,000 days since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. CBS News learned Sunday that President Biden had lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons to conduct strikes deep inside Russia.
U.S.-supplied ATACMS were used Tuesday on targets inside Russia, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News.
Ukraine has been one of the most mined countries in the world since Russia’s invasion in 2022, and Ukraine is inundated with APLs. They are known by deceptively innocent names such as “butterfly” or “petal” mines because they scatter like flower petals when they drop from the sky.
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“Typically, several hundred of these at a time will just be liberally and indiscriminately spread across the territory,” Pete Smith, the Ukraine program manager for the HALO Trust, a nonprofit organization focused on ridding warzones of landmines, told “60 Minutes” in August. “They can rest on the roofs. They can sit in guttering. They can take years before they come back into society and into view.”
To date, 164 nations, including Ukraine, have signed onto the Mine Ban Treaty which prohibits the use of APLs. However, three dozen countries have not agreed to it, including Russia and the U.S.
In January 2020, then-President Donald Trump reversed an Obama-era policy which banned the use of APLs anywhere except on the Korean Peninsula. However, in June 2022, Mr. Biden reinstated the ban, except for APLs “required for the defense of the Republic of Korea.”
contributed to this report.
ORION TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – At least two people were injured after a possible gas explosion and ensuing fire destroyed a condominium building Tuesday evening in Orion Township, Michigan, officials said. Another two people remain unaccounted for.
According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the explosion was reported at about 6:30 p.m. local time in the Keatington New Town Association condominium complex on Waldon Road, between Joslyn and Baldwin roads.
Orion Township Fire Chief Ryan Allen says the explosion destroyed a four-unit building, causing significant damage to one building and minimal damage to a few others. Allen says crews worked with utility providers DTE and Consumers Energy to control a gas leak.
Photo submitted by Orion Township resident
Allen says the two people hospitalized, a 72-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman, suffered critical injuries. Their current condition is unknown. An unknown number of others suffered minor injuries, he added.
Allen said crews were working to make contact with two people who are unaccounted for.
The sheriff’s office said no fatalities have so far been reported.
“Preliminary indications are it was a gas explosion but the exact cause has not been determined,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Orion Township is located just north of Detroit.
One resident who lives nearby told CBS News Detroit he was home with family when the explosion happened.
“We just heard this big boom [It] shuck my entire house. I look out the window, I see flares, I see fire just popping through the sky,” the resident said. “It felt like it was going to take a wall down. It felt like it happened at my house. I was terrified. It was so strong.”
Consumers Energy said in a statement that because firefighters were still battling the blaze, it did “not have additional information about the cause of the explosion or about the status of anyone in the building.”
The company said its crews will get on site once they are given the greenlight that it is safe to do so.
CBS News
Comedian Katt Williams often brags about passing Marine boot camp. The Marines say they have no record of it.
Los Angeles — Katt Williams, the Emmy-winning actor and renowned stand-up comedian, for years has claimed to have joined the U.S. Marine Corps as a teenager and successfully navigated the rigorous training only to be drummed out of the military when his superiors discovered he was a minor. The Marines told CBS News they have no record of him.
Dating back to at least 2016, Williams has claimed association with the U.S. Marine Corps when talking about his personal biography in video blogs, in his stand-up routines and in interviews viewed and heard by tens of millions of people. His claims of military service seem to not be attached to any of his critically acclaimed jokes or characters he has created for stage and screen but instead, a part of his journey towards comedy.
The U.S. Marine Corps tells CBS News there’s no record of Williams ever entering military service or attending any Marine Corps recruit training camps.
Multiple emails and phone calls were sent to Williams’ publicist, Amy Sisoyev, and his representatives at Creative Artists Agency, but no reply was returned for almost two weeks.
Earlier this year, Williams sat down for a nearly 3-hour interview with ESPN’s “First Take” correspondent Shannon Sharpe on his podcast, “Club Shay Shay.” The interview has racked up more than 83 million views on YouTube as of publication and is the most watched interview in YouTube’s history.
Sharpe, a former Denver Bronco and ex-NFL analyst for CBS Sports, asked Williams about being raised in Florida.
“I try to join the Marine Corps and they won’t accept me because I’m too young, and I’ve lied and told them I’m 16 and my family is moving down and I don’t have my ID but it’s coming. And so they [the Marines] let me go to the boot camp,” said Williams.
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Similarly, on comedian Marc Maron’s podcast last year, Williams said, “And then I attempt to join the Marine Corps, and I go off to boot camp and I pass, and then they reveal that I’m too young, and they give me a little ceremony because I did pass, you know, oo-Rah.”
He added: “I wasn’t even 16. I wasn’t even 16. I was already — I had miscalculated it wrong. I thought that you know, by the time I got back I would be good, but I hadn’t turned 16 by the time boot camp was over.”
Maron, whose “WTF” podcast garners more than 55 million listens per year, asked Williams if he got through boot camp and about his ceremony.
Williams reaffirmed that he passed boot camp, saying, “When you come back everybody gets the ceremony and I was supposed to have been, probably put in the brig or court-martialed or something, but they didn’t treat me like that. … As far as the Marine Corps thing, whatever those commercials were selling, you remember those commercials back in that time … if you wanted to join a gang, the Marines was the gang to join.”
On Saturday, CBS News attended the Vulture Festival in Los Angeles where Williams was interviewed about his life and career by Jesse David Fox, a Vulture writer and host of “Good One: The Podcast About Jokes.” Williams is set to launch his multistate “Heaven on Earth” tour next year.
While Williams did not discuss his alleged short stint in the Marines, the comedian said “Thank God I tell the truth” when asked by Fox about his past statements in interviews.
CBS News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records pertaining to Williams’ alleged enlistment in the Marine Corps.
Marine Corps officials searched for records pertaining to Williams using his full name — Micah Sierra Williams — and other identifying information such as his date of birth and social security number. Officials told CBS News that their database of official military personnel files dates back to the 1960s, housed at the National Personnel Records Center of the National Archives.
“We searched the files maintained by the Manpower Management Performance Branch but were unable to identify Mr. Williams as a member or former member of the U.S. Marine Corps,” wrote an official in response to CBS News’ public records request.
Marine Corps officials told CBS News that if Williams’ story was accurate, there would be records showing his entry into military service, his graduation and discharge, even if he fraudulently enlisted as a minor.
Army veteran Anthony Anderson, who runs “Guardians of Valor,” a popular social media website that investigates service member records, told CBS News that Williams’ claims are a “slap in the face of people who have earned the title of Marine.”
“Boot camp for the Marine Corps is not an easy task. To call yourself a Marine, you have to go through at least 13 weeks of boot camp and successfully navigate the crucible … people have died in training at boot camp trying to earn the title of Marine,” said Anderson.
While it’s unclear when exactly Williams began to claim he graduated from Marine boot camp, the earliest examples CBS News could find stemmed from Williams’ 2016 feud with actor and comedian Kevin Hart.
In a video that appears to have been recorded by Williams, addressing drug abuse allegations, the comedian says, “Ever since I got out of the Marine Corps, I can only breathe out of one nostril.”
That same year, Williams was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and battery charges after a fight at an apartment complex in Gainesville, Georgia, with a 17-year-old high school wrestler who was also charged, according to previous news reports. Williams pleaded not guilty and the case lingered on until earlier this year when local prosecutors decided to drop the case against Williams.
Soon after his arrest Williams spoke about the episode on stage, suggesting that he wasn’t actually put into a chokehold by the teenager and in fact, that Williams had let him win, adding, “I’m Semper Fi till I die, Marine Corps b—-. I passed motherf—ing boot camp at 16.”
Williams’ routine was removed from YouTube due to copyright infringement issues, but the video still exists in the reader forum on Military.com, a military news and culture website. A user posted the video to the website in 2016 and asked: “Katt Williams a Marine?”
