Macau Sentences Au Kam San to 12½ Years in First National Security Case

What changed

Macau sentenced former lawmaker and pro-democracy campaigner Au Kam San to 12 years and six months in prison on Friday, in the city’s first national security conviction under its expanded security framework.

Au, 69, was convicted of four of seven charges after a closed-door, three-day trial. The charges included subversion, contact with foreign organisations and breach of confidentiality.

Why it matters

The case turns Macau’s national security law from a legal framework into a prison sentence. Au was arrested in July 2025 after two decades as one of the few pro-democracy lawmakers in a legislature dominated by pro-Beijing loyalists.

He had also co-organised annual vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Those gatherings, once tolerated in Macau and Hong Kong, have effectively been banned in both cities since China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020.

Macau’s law took effect in 2009 and was broadened in 2023 to cover non-violent acts of secession. This year, it was revised again to permit closed-door national security trials. Au’s conviction is the first publicly reported test of that expanded system.

The practical effect is stark: political activity that once existed in Macau’s legislature and public commemorations now carries the possibility of a lengthy prison term. Au’s wife, Virginia Cheang, called the case “groundless persecution” and asked authorities to allow regular family visits and letters.

Authorities have not disclosed the case details or evidence supporting the convictions, and the court’s reasoning for the sentence and any appeal position were not stated.