Macau concludes first closed-door national security trial

Macau has concluded its first national security trial behind closed doors, a court said on Friday, days after proceedings began in a former pro-democracy lawmaker's case.

A verdict will be issued at a later date, Macau's Court of First Instance said in a statement.

The Chinese casino hub expanded the scope of national security laws in May 2023, and a bill passed this year allows judges to hear national security cases behind closed doors.

Au Kam San, a former Macau lawmaker who was detained in July 2025 on charges including subversion, was the first person to be arrested under the island's new laws and the first to face a closed trial.

The proceedings which opened on Wednesday have ended, the Court of First Instance said, adding that "the verdict will be delivered on a date to be scheduled later".

It said that Au, who was charged with "subversion of state power" as well as building ties with foreign groups and media outlets deemed harmful to China, "is accused of endangering national security".

Michael Polak, a London-based barrister representing 69-year-old Au, criticised the handling of the case.

"The fact that the 'trial' of Mr Au was completed... in secret, without him being represented by independent counsel underlines the farcical nature of the proceedings," Polak told AFP.

It is "impossible for evidence to have been properly evaluated and a proper process to have been followed for such a serious offence in such a short period of time", he said.

The close-door trial "shielded from public and press scrutiny, because secrecy conceals miscarriages of justice", said Jorge Menezes, a Portuguese lawyer who has practised in Macau.

"It is not about justice, security, or the rule of law; it is designed to intimidate everyone into submission to the Chinese Communist Party," Menezes told AFP before the trial.

Au was one of the organisers of annual vigils in Macau -- a former Portuguese territory which reverted to China in 1999 -- in memory of the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Macau and Hong Kong were once the only places in China where such public commemorations could take place.