prison sentence for 45 pro-democracy activists following largest national security trial

Hong Kong justice on Tuesday, November 19, sentenced to sentences of up to 10 years in prison the 45 pro-democracy activists found guilty of “subversion” following the largest trial organized for endangering 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.

The United States immediately “strongly condemned” this conviction, while Australia declared itself “seriously concerned” by the verdict.

A “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 finally gave up on the assembly election and Beijing established a new political system which strictly controls Hong Kong's elected officials. Forty-seven people were initially arrested and subsequently charged in 2021.

The judges felt that the group would have created a “constitutional crisis” if he had continued his action, and 45 were found guilty of “conspiracy to subvert state power”. Two of the defendants, social worker Lee Yue-shun and academic Lawrence Lau, were acquitted in May after judges said they were not 'not sure they intended to subvert'.

Politicians Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu, Ben Chung and Australian-Hong Kong activist Gordon Ng, named as “thinking heads”were sentenced to prison terms of up to 7 years and 3 months.