Macau’s first national security case: Au Kam San, former pro-democracy legislator, sentenced to 12 years and 6 months

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On November 7, 2026, this outlet learned that Au Kam San, a former pro-democracy legislator in Macau, had been sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in Macau’s first national security case.

On November 6, 2026, a Macau court found 69-year-old Au Kam San guilty on five charges, including “subversion of state power,” “contact with overseas organizations endangering national security,” and “breach of confidentiality.”

The case was heard behind closed doors in September. Au has been in custody since his arrest in July 2025. His family said previously that they had been unable to contact him for nearly a year and could not hire a defense lawyer on their own.

Au Kam San’s biography: Born on April 30, 1957, his Portuguese name is Au Kam San. His ancestral home is Xinxing County, Guangdong. He was formerly a Portuguese Macau national and is now a dual national of the People’s Republic of China (Macau) and Portugal. He formerly taught at Macau’s Ilha Verde Primary School, later became a prominent social activist, was a founding member of the New Macau Association, former chair of the Macau Democratic Development Alliance, vice-chair of the members’ assembly of the Macau Community Development Initiative, a Macau legislator, a leading figure in Macau’s pro-democracy camp, and a political prisoner held in China.

He grew up in Macau. At university, he studied for a bachelor’s degree in social sciences at the University of East Asia in Macau, then pursued a master’s degree in education at South China Normal University in mainland China. After completing his studies and returning to Macau, he worked as a teacher at Ilha Verde Primary School. In 1989, the June Fourth democracy movement took place in mainland China, and several groups in Macau organized marches and various solidarity actions. Because he took an active part and joined the political discussion group “Democratic Salon” (later renamed the Macau Democratic Development Alliance, or MDDA), after the June Fourth incident he and several other pro-democracy figures faced multiple pressures, including threats to their jobs, family pressure, and street violence, and were forced to resign or were dismissed. As a result, all but him and Ng Kuok Cheong dispersed from the MDDA. The two later entered politics one after the other and won direct elections to the Legislative Assembly, but continued to organize June Fourth commemorations until the Macau authorities of the Chinese Communist Party banned them.

In 1993, he began serving as a Macau municipal councilor. Four years later, after Macau’s return to China, he served five consecutive terms as a legislator over 20 years, until he announced in 2021 that he would not seek re-election. As for his social activism, in July 1992 he and Ng Kuok Cheong and others founded the pro-democracy group New Macau Association, whose purpose was “to take root in Macau, study Macau society, and promote the modernization of the region.” It used professional expertise to study issues across Macau society and made full use of the powers of Legislative Assembly members to put forward multiple motions on people’s livelihood issues and government policy failures, and to convey residents’ demands. It therefore won broad public support and became one of Macau’s most important pro-democracy groups. Several years later, a dispute arose within the New Macau Association between the “younger faction,” which advocated active participation in social movements, and the “senior faction,” which favored a parliamentary approach. In January 2016, citing the association’s “departure from the beliefs and founding purpose of its early years,” he wrote to the association and left it. He later formed another political party, the Macau Community Development Initiative, and successfully won re-election to the Legislative Assembly the following year.

In September 2018, he gave a media interview about public consultation on the “Legal Framework for the Interception of Communications and the Protection” law, which had raised public concern. He questioned whether police surveillance of him had exceeded legal limits, saying, “Under the law, if the police want to tap a phone, they must first obtain a judge’s approval.” He also said that although he supported stronger police oversight mechanisms, they could only work if they had real investigative powers. In response, Macau’s Secretary for Security criticized him without naming him, saying his remarks were “groundless, wild speculation, and defamatory.” He was later investigated by police for criminal liability over his remarks, the first such case since Macau’s return to China. The incident quickly sparked heated discussion among the public and online. People widely objected to the Judiciary Police’s handling of the matter, with almost unanimous criticism of the approach as unreasonable; it also stirred dissatisfaction with the local government. In response, a current affairs commentator said that the public had greater reason to focus on “how to improve oversight mechanisms and information transparency in law, to ensure the public’s right to know and residents’ privacy.”

On April 8, 2021, during a plenary session of the Legislative Assembly, he said that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress had passed amendments to Hong Kong’s electoral system that were “destroying Hong Kong’s democratic universal suffrage system.” After he made the remarks, five legislators, including Si Ka Lon, Chan Hong, and Chui Sai Peng, asked him to explain and retract them, arguing that his comments were one-sided and ignored the fact that some people in Hong Kong sought democracy by splitting the country. In 2021, under pressure, he announced that he would not run in the Legislative Assembly election (in fact, he was disqualified from running on the grounds that he was said not to be loyal to the Macau Special Administrative Region), ending his 20-year career as a directly elected legislator.

On July 30, 2025, he was suddenly arrested by the Macau Judiciary Police on suspicion of violating Article 13 of Macau’s National Security Law, the offense of “establishing contact with organizations, groups, or individuals outside the Macau Special Administrative Region to engage in acts endangering national security.” He was transferred to the procuratorate for investigation the following day. He was accused of “having allegedly colluded with several overseas anti-China organizations since 2022, providing them with large amounts of false and inflammatory data for ongoing public exhibitions overseas and online.” It was alleged that after Macau’s National Security Law took effect in 2023, he continued to use the data to “help others collect or openly disseminate false and clearly distorted information, thereby inciting hatred toward the Central People’s Government of China, prompting anti-China forces to take hostile action against China and the Macau Special Administrative Region, and undermining elections in the Macau Special Administrative Region, seriously endangering national security.” His home was searched when he was arrested, and some books were taken away. His wife, Cheng Miu Shan, was also taken away and later listed as a witness in his case. In response, the European External Action Service issued a statement on August 2 that year, condemning the Macau government’s arrest of him and criticizing the action for deepening concerns that political pluralism and freedom of expression in Macau were being eroded.

On November 6, 2026, a Macau court found 69-year-old Au Kam San guilty on five charges, including “subversion of state power,” “contact with overseas organizations endangering national security,” and “breach of confidentiality.” The case was heard behind closed doors in September. Au has been in custody since his arrest in July 2025. His family said previously that they had been unable to contact him for nearly a year and could not hire a defense lawyer on their own. He is currently being held at the Macau Prison.