Activists face jail time in controversial national security case

Courts on Tuesday will sentence a few of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy icons, together with Joshua Wong and Benny Benny, to jail phrases in a controversial nationwide safety case.

They’re members of the Hong Kong 47 Group Charged three years ago Crackdown beneath the Nationwide Safety Regulation (NSL) imposed by China.

Officers accused the eight ladies and 39 males of making an attempt to overthrow the federal government by holding unofficial primaries to elect opposition candidates for the Legislative Council elections.

The primaries have been held in July 2020 to assist the opposition achieve a big sufficient foothold to dam pro-Beijing authorities payments. It attracted greater than half 1,000,000 voters.

The primaries have been seen as a strategy to proceed the pro-democracy motion after protests in 2019 have been curtailed by the pandemic. That alarmed officers in Beijing and Hong Kong, who warned the transfer may violate the nationwide safety legislation that took impact days earlier than the first.

Organizers argued that their actions have been permitted by the Fundamental Regulation, the mini-constitution that governs Hong Kong and ensures a few of its freedoms.

However on the finish of the trial, the judges agreed with prosecutors’ argument that the plan would create a constitutional disaster if the first winners have been elected as lawmakers.

Many of the defendants both pleaded responsible or have been convicted of conspiracy to commit subversion. Two individuals have been acquitted in Might, which means 45 individuals can be sentenced on Tuesday.

Some are well-known figures similar to Joshua Wong and Benny Benny, icons of the pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2014.

There are additionally well-known opposition MPs Claudia Mao, Huang Haiyan, Guo Jiaqi and Liang Guoxiong, nicknamed “Lengthy Hair”.

However individuals like Chow Ho-man, Lau Ho-yin and Anita Yuen characterize a brand new era of vocal activists. Mr Lau and Mr Chow have been amongst tons of of people that stormed the Legislative Council and spray-painted Hong Kong’s metropolis emblem, changing into a key second within the 2019 protests.

There are additionally people who find themselves not concerned in politics however have been impressed by the 2019 protests, similar to social staff like Hendrick Lui, entrepreneurs like Mike Lam, and former nurse Winnie Yu.

Many of the defendants have been jailed since their arrests in early 2021 as pretrial detention beneath the Nationwide Safety Regulation has grow to be the norm.

The 2 individuals acquitted have been barrister and former district councilor Lauren Lau and former district councilor Lee Yu-shun.

One of many key organizers of the 2020 primaries, Mr Tai has been labeled a “die-hard troublemaker” by China for allegedly advocating Hong Kong independence and describing Communist Occasion rule as a “dictatorship”.

Benny Tai is an instructional and legislation professor who first rose to prominence in 2014, when he and two others launched the pro-democracy Occupy Central motion.

It was a historic civil disobedience motion calling for truthful and free elections in Hong Kong, with tons of of 1000’s of individuals taking to the streets.

In 2019, Mr Tai was jailed for collaborating within the Occupy Central protests.

A yr later, after the imposition of the nationwide safety legislation, he was fired from the celebrated College of Hong Kong (HKU) resulting from his prison conviction.

Mr Tai accused the college of bowing to Chinese language strain and referred to as it “the tip of educational freedom” in Hong Kong.

By then, he was already dealing with expenses of subversion from the Nationwide Safety Council for organizing the primaries.

Joshua Wong is arguably Hong Kong’s most well-known pro-democracy activist, his path to activism started when he was 14 years outdated.

By 2014, he had grow to be the face of the Umbrella Motion, the huge pupil protests symbolized by umbrellas that arose alongside the Occupy Central sit-ins.

He was simply 20 years outdated when his activism started send him to jailwhich might be the primary of a number of convictions.

Hong Kong was rocked by months of protests in 2019, with tons of of 1000’s marching towards a controversial extradition invoice that may have allowed Hong Kong individuals to be despatched to mainland China to face trial.

Mr Wong was amongst 1000’s of people that besieged the Wan Chai District Police Headquarters in June that yr, throwing eggs on the constructing and spraying graffiti on the partitions.

Whereas the demonstrations on the time have been broadly seen as a spontaneous “leaderless” motion, prosecutors mentioned he led that specific protest, pointing to a video of him calling on the gang to “fully encompass police headquarters.”

He was imprisoned for his function and positioned in solitary confinement.

However he remained defiant after pleading responsible: “Maybe the authorities need me to spend one sentence after one other in jail. However I imagine that neither jail, nor electoral bans nor every other arbitrary energy will cease our activism.

He was nonetheless serving his sentence when he was charged with subversion beneath the nationwide safety legislation.

Former opposition legislator Leung Kwok-hung, referred to as “Lengthy Hair” due to his coiffure, as soon as described himself as a “Marxist revolutionary.”

The 68-year-old is understood for his political theatrics – one in every of his signature strikes is throwing bananas in protest. When he was re-sworn in as a member of the Legislative Council in 2016, he launched balloons with political banners and held a yellow umbrella, declaring that “the Umbrella Motion won’t ever finish.”

This resulted in his disqualification from the Council. He was arrested and jailed a number of instances for collaborating in protests in 2019.

After the implementation of the nationwide safety legislation in 2020, he married his long-term accomplice Vanessa Chan, also called Chen Baoying, a widely known activist. They have been one of many founding members of the Social Democratic Alliance.

They mentioned they determined to get married as a result of they might have larger authorized rights, similar to jail visitation rights, if one in every of them went to jail.

Forty days after the marriage, Mr. Liang was charged.

Claudia Mo, affectionately referred to as Auntie Mo in Cantonese, was a widely known opposition legislator.

She was a reporter for AFP and reported on the 1989 crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Sq..

The 67-year-old helped discovered the opposition Civic Occasion in 2006 and received a seat within the Legislative Council in 2012 after giving up her British citizenship to carry public workplace.

She is one in every of 15 MPs A large number of resignations from the Legislative Council In November 2020, 4 Democratic congressmen have been ousted.

“We have to do this,” she said at the time.. “We have to protest towards what could also be Beijing’s eventual crackdown on Hong Kong — to silence the final vestiges of dissent within the metropolis.”

Within the early morning of January 6, 2021, the police “bumped into the lounge” and arrested her. British “Financial Times” reportciting an unnamed supply, described the assault as “pure atrocity.”

She has been in jail ever since. When her husband, the British journalist Philip Bowling, grew to become critically in poor health, Ms Mok was not allowed to go to him from jail.

Sam is a long-time political and LGBTQ activist who additionally leads one in every of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy teams, the Civil Human Rights Entrance (CHRF).

The group disbanded in 2021, saying it may not function amid the “unprecedented” challenges posed by China’s crackdown.

Mr. Shun was violently attacked a number of instances in 2019, together with one time the place he suffered a head harm and ended up residing on the road. CHRF accused authorities supporters of this and different assaults on pro-democracy activists on the time, however this was by no means confirmed.

The 37-year-old married his accomplice in New York in 2013 and campaigned for Hong Kong to acknowledge abroad same-sex marriages. In 2023, Hong Kong’s Supreme Courtroom granted him a partial victory when he ordered the federal government to ascertain a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships.

At the moment, Mr Shum was detained for collaborating in Hong Kong’s main election.

He has been denied bail a number of instances, with the choose describing him as a “decided younger man” who might proceed to commit “acts endangering nationwide safety” if launched.

Earlier than turning to politics, 33-year-old Grace Ho labored for a lot of information media, together with the Chinese language model of the BBC, the government-run broadcaster Radio Hong Kong and Stand Information.

She rose to fame after being overwhelmed by a mob whereas reporting on a 2019 protest. The assault left her hospitalized.

She ran within the 2020 main and received a excessive vote share in her district.

She mentioned in the course of the trial it was “inevitable” 12 Democratic candidatestogether with her, have been disqualified from collaborating in legislative elections.

“I imagine most Hong Kong individuals know deep down that combating for democracy beneath the Chinese language Communist regime has all the time been a fantasy,” she mentioned.

Image from Hong Kong InMedia