A Hong Kong court on Tuesday sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists and former activists to up to 10 years in prison, concluding the largest case brought to date under the authoritarian “national security law” imposed by Beijing to crush the 2019 pro-democracy movement.
The defendants were prosecuted for holding an unofficial primary election in July 2020 for the Hong Kong legislature, commonly known as LegCo. The Beijing-controlled city government disqualified a dozen pro-democracy candidates from running in the election, then postponed it for a year, ostensibly due to surging coronavirus cases.
Pro-democracy activists said the puppet government was still worried about suffering an embarrassing loss, even after forcing the strongest opposition candidates off the ballot. They also noted that under Hong Kong law, the electron could not legally be postponed for more than 14 days, and incumbents were not legally permitted to hold their seats after that time.
Opposition politicians, led by legal scholar and protest organizer Benny Tai, held an unofficial “primary” on the weekend of July 11, collecting about 600,000 votes despite warnings from the government that the contest was illegal.
Chinese Communist Party officials claimed the unofficial primary was part of a “color revolution” – a plot to undermine the Hong Kong government, supported by hostile foreign powers.
In May 2020, Beijing bypassed Hong Kong’s guaranteed autonomy to enforce a “national security law” that criminalized virtually all criticism, opposition, and protests as sedition or treason. The 45 defendants sentenced on Tuesday were accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong government and oust its leader at the time, Carrie Lam.
Benny Tai, denounced as “mastermind” of the scheme by prosecutors, received the longest jail sentence at ten years. Some of the other defendants were given reduced sentences because they supposedly did not realize the unofficial primer in July 2020 was illegal, but Tai and another protest leader, Alvin Yeung, were shown no mercy by the court.
The judges said Tai’s political writings in 2019 and 2020 were tantamount to “advocating for a revolution,” while the unofficial primary was a plot to create a “constitutional crisis.” The fact that the primary was non-binding did not matter to the judges, who said the defendants worked hard to portray it as a valid election.
“When the Primary Election took place on the 10 and 11 July, no one had remotely mentioned the fact that Primary Election was no more than an academic exercise and that the Scheme was absolutely unattainable,” the judgment said.
“Our true crime for Beijing is that we were not content with playing along in manipulated elections,” retorted journalist and democracy activist Gwyneth Ho, who was sentenced to seven years in prison.
“We dared to confront the regime with the question: Will democracy ever be possible within such a structure? The answer was a complete crackdown on all fronts of society,” she said in a Facebook post.
“Prosecuting democratic politicians and activists across the spectrum, the case was seen as the turning point at which Hong Kong became a lost cause. People were scared into silence and forced to give up hope for democracy in Hong Kong,” Ho wrote.
“This is an unjust imprisonment. They shouldn’t be kept in jail for one day,” said Chan Po-ying, wife of defendant Leung Kwok-hung.
Former student leader Joshua Wong, one of the most prominent voices in the pro-democracy movement, shouted “I love Hong Kong!” as he left the courtroom. Wong, who is now 28 years old, was sentenced to over four years in prison.
Veteran journalist and former lawmaker Claudia Mo, another star of the 2019 protest movement, was also sentenced to over four years in prison.
Most of the defendants sentenced on Tuesday have already been imprisoned without bail for three years or more, because the National Security Law provided for pre-trial detention. Mo’s husband, British journalist Philip Bowring, said it was difficult to discuss his feelings about the trial, but at least there was some comfort in knowing when his wife might finally be free.
“We will survive this,” Bowring declared. He said he and Mo have no plans to leave the city they still love.
The U.S. State Department condemned the sentences handed down on Tuesday as “unjust.”
“The 45 defendants sentenced today were aggressively prosecuted, and many now face life-altering imprisonment simply for their peaceful participation in political activities which are protected under the Basic Law of Hong Kong,” the statement said.
“We call on Hong Kong authorities to immediately and unconditionally release these 45 individuals and similarly detained political prisoners. These harsh sentences erode confidence in Hong Kong’s judicial system and harm the city’s international reputation,” the statement declared.
The State Department said it is “taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on multiple Hong Kong officials responsible for implementation of the National Security Law (NSL).”
“It’s now a crime carrying up to 10 years in prison to try and run in and win an election in Hong Kong,” observed Maya Wang, associate China director for Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“The cruel sentences for dozens of prominent democracy activists show just how fast Hong Kong’s civil liberties and the rule of law have nosedived in the four years since the Chinese government imposed the draconian National Security Law on the city,” she said.
HRW noted that the trial of the “Hong Kong 47” (there were originally 47 defendants, but two were acquitted) “violated international due process standards” in several ways, including lengthy pretrial detention, the denial of a jury trial, the overly broad nature of the charges, and the denial of consular services to defendant Gordon Ng Ching-hang, who is an Australian citizen.
HRW said the National Security Law “turned the semi-democratic Legislative Council into a rubber stamp by disqualifying pro-democracy legislators and changing the electoral rules so that only those loyal to the Chinese Communist Party could win a seat in Hong Kong’s elections.”
Unsurprisingly, the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed the trial was both fair and appropriate for “safeguarding national security and lawfully punishing activities that endanger it.”
“We resolutely oppose interference in China’s internal affairs and the smearing or undermining of Hong Kong’s legal system by certain Western nations under the guise of specific judicial cases,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian.
