Hong Kong sentences 45 pro-democracy activists to prison in landmark trial

A Hong Kong court imposed jail terms of up to 10 years on 45 pro-democracy activists using a draconian national security law. It is the largest trial, in number of defendants and length of sentences, decided under the rule forced by Beijing on the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

The convicts, who include prominent figures from Hong Kong's once-diverse political landscape, were arrested for organizing an informal primary election in 2020 within the pro-democracy camp with a view to gaining a majority in the city's legislature, according to AFP.

The mastermind behind this initiative, legal scholar Benny Tai, was sentenced to ten years in prison—the harshest penalty handed down under this law enacted after the massive protests the previous year.

Alongside Tai, pro-democracy politicians Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu, Ben Chung, and Gordon Ng—the latter holding Australian citizenship—were identified as key organizers of the initiative and received sentences of up to seven years and three months in prison.

The minimum sentence imposed on the rest of the 40 defendants is four years and two months. All 45 were brought into court on Tuesday and crowded into the dock, from where they occasionally waved to the public gallery.

Hong Kong authorities initially arrested 47 people linked to the case in January 2021, but two of them were acquitted last May.

Among those in attendance was one of the two acquitted, former district councilor and street dancer Lee Yue-shun, who expressed his "concern about this important case" despite being exonerated.

"We have lost many freedoms. The acquittal means I have lost one less," he told AFP.

"Long-haired" Leung Kwok-hung, 68, founder of the city's last opposition party, the League of Social Democrats (LSD), was sentenced to six years and nine months. His wife and LSD leader Chan Po-ying told AFP outside the court that the sentence was "within our expectations." "It is what it is, it doesn't matter if I laugh or cry, so I choose to laugh a little," she said.

International response

International condemnation was swift, with harsh criticism from the United States, Australia and human rights organizations over the erosion of political freedoms in the city.

The Australian government said it was "gravely concerned" by the sentence and said it would continue to defend Ng.

A spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong said Washington "strongly condemns" the sentences and that the defendants were "aggressively prosecuted and jailed for peacefully participating in normal political activity."

Taiwan's presidency condemned "the Chinese government's use of unfair judicial measures and prosecutions to suppress the political participation and freedom of expression of Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists." "Democracy is not a crime," said Taiwanese presidential spokeswoman Karen Kuo.

For its part, China accused countries criticizing the ruling of "desecrating and trampling on the spirit of the rule of law" and warned them to avoid interfering.