Hong Kong justice on Tuesday sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists convicted of “subversion” to prison terms of up to 10 years, following the largest trial organized in Hong Kong for endangering national security.
The United States, Australia and human rights NGOs immediately reacted by condemning these sentences as proof of the erosion of political freedoms in Hong Kong since the firm takeover by Beijing.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Tuesday that Western countries' criticism of the trial “desecrates and tramples” the rule of law.
Lawyer Benny Tai received a 10-year prison sentence, the longest handed down to date under the 2020 law, promulgated a year after massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in this region Special Administrative Administration (SAR) of China.
All the activists were found guilty of having organized an unofficial primary intended to select opposition candidates for the legislative elections, in the hope of winning a majority within the local assembly and vetoing budgets, and of forcing potentially Hong Kong's then-pro-Beijing leader, Carrie Lam, to resign.
Despite warnings from authorities, 610,000 people voted in the primary in July 2020, or nearly a seventh of Hong Kong residents of voting age.
The authorities finally gave up on the election of the local assembly and Beijing established a new political system which allows strict control of Hong Kong's elected officials.
– “Constitutional crisis” –
Forty-seven people were initially arrested and then charged in 2021 in this case.
Of these, 31 had pleaded guilty, 16 were tried in a 118-day trial last year, after which 14 were convicted, facing sentences of up to life, and two were acquitted in court. may.
The judges ruled that the group had risked provoking a “constitutional crisis”. 45 people were found guilty of “conspiracy to subvert state power” and sentenced Tuesday to sentences ranging from four years and two months to ten years in prison.
At dawn on Tuesday, more than 200 people lined up outside the court in freezing drizzle, hoping to get a place in court for the sentencing of some of Hong Kong's most prominent opposition figures. .
“I want to witness how Hong Kong becomes mainland China,” Eric, a Chinese computer scientist from the mainland, told AFP.
The 45 opposition figures were crowded into the dock at the court, from where they sometimes greeted the public. Many of them have already spent more than 1,300 days in prison.
The politicians Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu, Ben Chung and the Australian-Hong Kong activist Gordon Ng, designated as “thinking heads” of the organization of the election, were sentenced to sentences of up to 7 years and 3 months of imprisonment.
Australia declared itself “gravely concerned” by these sentences, and in particular that of Gordon Ng, who has Hong Kong and Australian nationalities.
The second longest sentence was given to young activist Owen Chow, at seven years and nine months, with the court ruling that he had “played a more active role in the system than the other defendants”.
In a message posted on Facebook before his sentence, he said he was “absolutely not optimistic”. “But I have hope, because although I am far from the day of liberation, we have now seen the end point,” he wrote.
Leung Kwok-hung, 68, co-founder of the city's last opposition party, the League of Social Democrats (LSD), received a sentence of six years and nine months.
Chan Po-ying, his wife and party leader, interviewed by AFP, described the sentence as “in line with (his) expectations”.
Leticia Wong, a former city councilor from a now-disbanded pro-democracy party who attended the hearing, said the conditions of the trial “encouraged people to plead guilty and testify against their peers.”
“For those who refused to be submitted, the punishment is obviously heavier,” she said.
– “Collapsed freedoms” –
Authorities in China and Hong Kong say the security law helped restore order following 2019 protests and have warned against “interference” from other countries.
Hong Kong Security Minister Chris Tang stressed Tuesday that the sentences “reflect the seriousness of the crime” committed by the activists and “show that crimes endangering national security must be heavily punished.”
The United States “strongly condemned” these prison sentences handed down against activists who had carried out “normal political activity protected by Hong Kong's basic law”, according to a spokesperson for the consulate.
“Today’s harsh sentences reflect how quickly Hong Kong’s civil liberties and judicial independence have collapsed over the past four years,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. in a press release.
Anna Kwok, executive director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council in Washington, condemned “an attack on the very essence of Hong Kong, which aspires to freedom, democracy and the right to political expression.”
On Wednesday, media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, 76, will also testify in his trial for endangering national security, breaking his silence after five other trials and nearly four years in prison.
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