Hong Kong court sentences 45 pro-democracy leaders in class-action lawsuit

November 18 (UPI) — A court in Hong Kong convicted 45 pro-democracy advocates in a mass trial on Tuesday; It was the largest lawsuit ever filed under the city’s draconian Homeland Security Act.

The group of lawmakers, opposition politicians and activists were sentenced Tuesday to 51 to 120 months in prison on charges of conspiring to subvert Hong Kong’s National Security Law, which Beijing imposed on the island following mass pro-democracy protests in July. former British colony.

The law devastated the city’s democratic movement and led to leaders being imprisoned or exiled in Western countries.

Dozens of activists, known as the Hong Kong 47, were arrested in January 2021 on charges of holding an election primary in July 2020 to elect pro-democracy politicians to secure a majority in the city’s Legislative Council and gain veto power. .

However, the Legislative Council elections were postponed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and then politicians were arrested during an early morning search of the city in January 2021.

Benny Tai Yiu-ting, 60, a former law professor at the University of Hong Kong, was sentenced to the longest prison sentence of 10 years for being the organizer of the primary election.

Besides Yiu-ting, Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chui Ka-yin and Ben Kam-lun Chung were also labeled “main offenders” in the court document and sentenced to six years and nine months in prison; seven years; and six years and 1 month respectively.

Of the 47 defendants in the case, 29 (including the four organizers) pleaded guilty, 14 were convicted at trial, and two were acquitted.

The sentence was widely condemned by Hong Kong watchdogs and pro-democracy activists and is seen as a warning against others who might strike for democracy in the city.

Hong Kong residents have seen their freedoms decline since mass protests erupted in the city in 2019 against an extradition law that allowed some defendants to be sent to mainland China to face Communist Party courts.

The protest later grew into a larger pro-democracy movement that brought Hong Kong to a standstill.

Beijing responded by imposing the National Security Law on Hong Kong in July 2020, which broadly criminalizes secession, sedition, terrorism, and working with foreign entities to undermine China’s national security in Hong Kong.

UK-based Hong Kong Watch on Tuesday, before the sentence was announced, described the case as not only the biggest but also the most important national security case since the controversial law came into force in 2020.

He said the sentences would set a precedent for other cases critical of the Hong Kong government and “mark another decline in the crackdown on Hong Kong.”

“The sentencing of the Hong Kong 47 is another dark milestone in the decline of Hong Kong democracy and society,” said Derek Mitchell, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and patron of Hong Kong Watch. a statement.

The Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council non-profit organization said the case was “weaponized” and the sentence handed down to the Hong Kong 47 was “an attack on the very essence of Hong Kong”.

“As the Supreme Court imposes sentences for those who took part in the 2020 pro-democracy primaries in Hong Kong, it is also punishing the next generation of Hong Kongers who aspire to a political future,” said Anna Kwok, chief executive of the HKDC. a statement.

“Although 45 people carried the weight of the punishment, the court decided what they wanted to do for the future of Hong Kong.”