A statement by a London-based legal team acting for Hong Kong jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying that they had received anonymous emails warning them against flying into the city to represent him in court prompted local police to issue a strong condemnation of those impersonating officers.

The barristers from British law firm Doughty Street Chambers told the Post their team had received a number of threatening messages through emails and “indirect messages”.

They were from a sender who claimed to be from the Hong Kong security services with a gmail address with the shorthand “sb”, commonly known as the Security Bureau.

Media reports on Friday said the email was issued by the “National Security Wing”, which purported to be from the national security department of the Hong Kong Police Force.

“A person that refuses to abide by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region could be extradited … from other jurisdictions. Foreign nationals will be charged with the offences of subversion,” one of the emails read. “You have been warned not to attempt entry or land in Chinese territory.”

The former headquarters of Apple Daily in Tseung Kwan O.

The lawyers told the media that “intimidatory tactics” to threaten journalists, campaigners and lawyers in Hong Kong had been happening for some time and were now spreading to foreign countries. They also declined to reveal if they would travel to the city for the trial.

Others, including foreign journalists, reported having received similar emails.

In response to the reports, the police force issued a statement on Friday condemning the act of impersonating police officers in the emails.

“Police are concerned about media reports stating that Hong Kong ‘National Security Wing’ has sent emails to overseas legal practitioners alleging that they have breached the Hong Kong national security law,” it reads.

“Police reiterate that, as a professional law enforcement department, police would act in accordance with the relevant laws, established procedures and guidelines when executing duties,” it added.

Police also appealed to people concerned to provide further information or evidence to facilitate follow-up action.

The barristers stressed in an email to the Post: “Whether they are genuine or fake, it is a clear attempt to intimidate us and interfere with our ability to represent our client.”

They vowed to continue to represent Lai internationally. They are not involved in any of the Hong Kong proceedings.

The anonymous message to the lawyers came as the legal team filed an urgent appeal with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Thursday, saying Lai’s continuing imprisonment was unlawful and in breach of international law.

They said they received the first threatening email in April after their first UN complaint in April. Since then, similar emails kept coming. They also said that since the matter came to light, they had received other “sinister emails” accusing them of fabricating the allegation and warning them to take “a more reconciliatory position” for Lai.

They said they had reported the matter to “relevant authorities” without divulging which ones.

Lai, 74, owner of the now-defunct Apple Daily, has been behind bars since August 2020 after the national security law was implemented in Hong Kong. He is currently serving a 13-month sentence for his role in ­the banned vigil in 2020 to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. He is also serving a 20-month jail sentence for his roles in four unauthorised assemblies, three of which stemmed from the 2019 social unrest, with the two sentences running concurrently.

“Jimmy Lai is arbitrarily detained in a Hong Kong prison, faces a barrage of spurious cases and the risk of spending the rest of his life behind bars, all due to his work as a writer, media owner and peaceful pro-democracy campaigner,” Caoilfhionn Gallagher, counsel for Lai, who was also threatened in the email, said in a separate press release.

“Vital rights and freedoms – to free speech, a free media, the right to protest – are vanishing fast in Hong Kong. Urgent action by the United Nations and the international community to hold the authorities to account is now essential,” she added.

The Queen’s Counsel was recently targeted in a piece by Wen Wei Po, which accused her of undermining national security in her work for Lai.