Dozens of lawyers, scholars, journalists and democratic politicians have been imprisoned for ‘subversion’ against the pro-Beijing government, reports the Times. Here’s an extract:
Dozens of Hong Kong’s most prominent lawyers, scholars, journalists, activists and democratic politicians have been imprisoned for up to a decade for the crime of subversion, in the biggest trial so far under the territory’s national security law.
Joshua Wong, the 28-year-old politician and activist, who has spent years in prison for peaceful opposition to Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing government, shouted, “I love Hong Kong — bye-bye!” as he was led from the dock with 44 other defendants.
Wong was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for his part in a plan to win a majority of seats in Hong Kong’s legislature and force out the territory’s chief executive by blocking laws and budgets.
The man described by the Hong Kong High Court as the “mastermind” behind the plan, the British-educated law scholar Benny Tai, was sentenced to ten years in prison for planning what the judges called a “revolution”.
The defendants, known collectively as the “Hong Kong 47”, argued that elected MPs challenging a government on the basis of parliamentary rules would be normal and legitimate activity in a democratic system — and that the plan was, in any case, never put into effect.
However, the panel of three judges ruled that it amounted to a plot to “undermine, destroy or overthrow the existing political system”.
“In essence, D1 [Tai] advocated for a revolution,” the judges said in a statement referring to him by the alpha-numerical code system applied to the defendants. “He was the mastermind.”
The accused activists had organised unofficial primary elections to choose candidates to run in the 2020 election for Hong Kong’s legislativecouncil (Legco). More than 600,000 Hong-Kongers voted in the ballot.
The idea was to identify the most popular candidates in the hope of winning a majority for democratic parties, after their landslide victory in local elections the previous year.
The election was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic and by the time it was held in 2021, the rules had been changed to exclude as candidates all but “patriots” loyal to Beijing.
By then the 47 had been arrested in dawn raids, which locked up many of the democratic movement’s most prominent and experienced leaders.
They included Claudia Mo, 67, a former journalist and democratic MP, who received a sentence of four years and two months on Tuesday morning, after pleading guilty. Her husband, the veteran British journalist Philip Bowring, was ordered to sit down after standing up in court to wave at her.
Those who denied their guilt received longer sentences, among them another journalist, Gwyneth Ho, 34, who was given seven years. Leung Kwok-hung, the former MP and veteran activist known by his nickname “Long Hair”, was sentenced to six years and nine months.
Thirty-one defendants pleaded guilty in hope of receiving a reduced sentence — the maximum penalty for subversion is life imprisonment. The judges said on Tuesday that Tai would have been given 15 years in prison had he denied the charges. When the judges delivered their verdict in May, only two of the 16 who pleaded not guilty were acquitted.
Worth reading in full.
