Hong Kong –
45 pro-democracy activists sentenced to prison
At the end of the largest national security trial in Hong Kong, 45 pro-democracy activists were found guilty of “subversion”.
Published today at 4:19 a.m.
Lawyer Benny Tai was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down to date.
AFP
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Hong Kong justice on Tuesday sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists found guilty of “subversion” to sentences of up to 10 years in prison following the largest trial organized for undermining national security.
Lawyer Benny Tai was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down to date under the 2020 law, enacted a year after massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the special administrative region (SAR) of China.
All the activists were found guilty of organizing an unofficial primary intended to select opposition candidates for the legislative elections, in the hope of winning a majority in the local assembly, vetoing budgets and potentially forcing to the resignation of the then pro-Beijing leader of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam.
“Constitutional crisis”
Despite warnings from the authorities, 610,000 people voted in the primary, or nearly a seventh of Hong Kong residents of voting age. The authorities eventually gave up on the assembly election and Beijing established a new political system that strictly controls Hong Kong’s elected officials.
Forty-seven people were initially arrested and subsequently charged in 2021. Judges found the group would have created a “constitutional crisis” if it had continued its action, and 45 were found guilty of “conspiring to subvert the power of the State”.
Two of the defendants, social worker Lee Yue-shun and academic Lawrence Lau, were acquitted in May after judges said they were “not sure whether they intended to subvert.”
Politicians Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu, Ben Chung and Australian-Hong Kong activist Gordon Ng, referred to as “thinking heads”, were sentenced to up to 7 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.
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