2 men linked to Hong Kong trade office case deny spying charges in UK

Two men accused of spying and linked to Hong Kong’s trade office in the United Kingdom have denied a charge of assisting a foreign intelligence service, with court proceedings set to start in March of next year.

Bill Yuen Chung-biu, an office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and UK Border Force officer Peter Wai Chi-leung, pleaded not guilty to the charge at London’s Central Criminal Court on Thursday (UK time), according to local media and newswire reports.

The pair are accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service by engaging in unlawful information gathering, illegal surveillance and committing acts of deception between December 2023 and May of this year, in violation of Britain’s National Security Act.

The two also pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of foreign interference for allegedly breaking into a home in the UK.

Wai, who also worked as a part-time volunteer officer with the City of London Police, denied a count of misconduct in a public office for allegedly searching Home Office databases without justification.

The trial has been tentatively scheduled to begin on March 10 of next year and is expected to last four weeks.

Former British Royal Marine Matthew Trickett was initially among those charged in the case, but the Home Office immigration officer was found dead in a Maidenhead park in May, just days before his second scheduled court appearance.