Convictions after primaries held in 2020 by the pro-democracy front. Also the leader of the ‘umbrella movement’ among those condemned
The West Kowloon Court in Hong Kong has sentenced all five pro-democracy activists who promoted the primaries for the parliamentary elections in the former British colony in 2020 with sentences of up to 10 years in prison for subversion. They are the jurist Benny Tai (10 years in prison) and the politicians Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu, Ben Chung and Gordon Ng. The other 41 people involved in the proceedings were also convicted, in what was Hong Kong’s largest national security trial under the law imposed by Beijing on the former colony in June 2020 after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
There is also Joshua Wong, former leader of the so-called “umbrella movement” of 2014, in the long list of 45 pro-democracy activists who were today sentenced to sentences of up to 10 years in prison for subversion: against him the High The Court decided on 56 months of imprisonment, which are added to the other sentences accumulated for various reasons. These are all convictions relating to the mass protests of 2019 which brought over 2 million people to the streets of the former colony with the aim of demanding reforms and greater protection of rights. Wong, currently in prison, is among the most popular faces of Hong Kong activists.
The largest national security case to date in the former British colony involved 45 pro-democracy activists, academics and former politicians, part of the so-called ‘Hong Kong 47’ group (two defendants were acquitted), who had been charged the accusations in 2021 “of conspiracy to subvert” for their role in an “unofficial primary vote” in 2020, in view of the parliamentary elections which were then postponed. Most of the defendants have been in detention since then: the jurist Benny Tai, labeled as the “mastermind and organizer” of the activists, received the heaviest sentence of 10 years in prison. Among the five promoters of the initiative there is also an Australian with dual citizenship Gordon Ng, hit with a sentence of seven years and three months in prison which provoked strong protests in Canberra. High Court judges did not read the full sentencing disposition, an 82-page document which would be uploaded online for the “public to weigh in”. In 10 minutes, however, the sentences of each defendant were spelled out, cited not by name but by list number in the proceedings. The primaries were designed to increase the chances of having pro-democracy candidates elected to the local parliament (LegCo) in the 2020 vote: for the specialized panel on national security made up of three judges, all chosen by the Hong Kong executive, the aim was to weaken the government and lead to a constitutional crisis. Of the 47 defendants, 31 pleaded guilty and of the 16 who denied the charges, two were acquitted in May and 14 were found guilty. In addition to Australia, the United States also contested the judicial response. “The US strongly condemns the sentences announced against 45 democracy supporters and former deputies. The defendants were aggressively prosecuted and imprisoned for peacefully participating in normal political activities protected by the Basic Law (the local Constitution, ed.) of Hong Kong,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Consulate General said.
Taiwan has harshly criticized China for the sentences of up to 10 years in prison imposed today on the 45 Hong Kong activists found guilty of subversion, saying that “democracy is not a crime”. In a note, the spokesperson of the Presidential Office in Taipei, Karen Kuo, “strongly condemned the Chinese government’s use of judicial measures and unfair procedures to suppress the political participation and freedom of speech of pro-pro-activists democracy in Hong Kong”.
China has accused the US and its allies, who criticized the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, of “seriously desecrating and trampling on the rule of law”, as the High Court handed down sentences of up to 10 years prison for subversion. Some Western nations “ignore the fact that they use relevant judicial procedures to uphold their own national security, while also arbitrarily condemning Hong Kong courts implementing the national security law,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, during of the daily briefing.
The sentences imposed by the Hong Kong justice system against pro-democracy activists “criminalise political dissent”. This is what we read in a note from the Foreign Office according to which “China’s imposition of the national security law” in the former British colony “has eroded the rights and freedoms” of citizens. London’s response comes after 45 activists were sentenced to up to 10 years for subversion by Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Court.
