Hong Kong 47: Activist Joshua Wong frequently helped his community, court hears, as lawyer urges lighter sentence
Hong Kong Free Press
Activist Joshua Wong frequently helped others in the community, his lawyer has said as he attempted to convince judges that his client should be given a lesser sentence in the city’s largest national security case.
Wong, 27, was among six defendants who appeared at West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Friday for a mitigation hearing. The defendants, who included ex-lawmakers and district councillors, face up to life imprisonment for taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion linked to an unofficial primary in July 2020.
Wearing a blue shirt and a grey cardigan, Wong nodded to people in the public gallery from the defendant dock as he was led into the courtroom. The activist was separated from his fellow defendants, and made to sit in a corner next to a corrections officer while the other five sat on an adjacent bench.
Marco Li, Wong’s lawyer, said that the fact his client pleaded guilty early was “the most significant mitigating factor for him.”
He added that Wong often assisted people in the Southern District, where he lived. Despite not being a district councillor or having other official capacities, he was “consistent in rendering services,” such as distributing face masks and sanitary products during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the centre of the national security case is an unofficial primary in July 2020, aimed at shortlisting candidates for the Legislative Council elections that year. The elections were later postponed due to Covid-19. The prosecution said the defendants planned to use legislative powers to indiscriminately veto bills, ultimately forcing the chief executive’s resignation and a government shutdown.
Li said his client was not involved in organising the primaries and was considered an “active participant,” referring to the second of three tiers determining a defendant’s jail term under the national security law.
The security law stipulates three categories of offenders, with “principal offenders” facing up to life in prison. An “active participant” could be sentenced up to 10 years in jail and “other participants” up to three years in jail.
Li told the court that Wong’s mother, church pastors and a former teacher wrote mitigation letters for the activist. Wong himself did not write a letter, he said.
“He very much hope[s] that after all this… he could part with his past history and be able to reform himself after he serves his sentence for this particular offence,” the lawyer added.
Mitigation hearings for the landmark national security case began in late June, after the 118-day trial concluded last December. Most of the defendants have been remanded for over three years.
Of the 47 defendants, 16 of them pleaded not guilty and were trialled before three handpicked national security judges. The verdict was handed down in May, with 14 of them convicted and two cleared of their charges.
Not a ‘radical politician’
Friday’s hearing saw the third batch of defendants – those who ran in the primary’s Kowloon East constituency – to have their mitigation pleas heard. Ex-lawmakers Jeremy Tam and Wu Chi-wai, former district councillors Sze Tak-loy and Kinda Li and radio host Tam Tak-chi appeared alongside Wong in the defendant dock during the hearing.
After Wong, the court heard the mitigation plea for Tam, a former member of the Civic Party. Compared to the other defendants, Tam appeared serious and only made occasional glances at the public gallery.
Representing Tam, counsel Ambrose Ho said he had a humble upbringing. Tam and his family members lived in conditions that were not “ideal” before settling in a housing estate. Through hard work, Tam became a commercial pilot after studying mechanical space engineering in Australia, Ho told the court.
“Mr Tam never had the intention of becoming any semblance of a radical politician,” Ho said, adding that his client had always wanted to give back to society and make Hong Kong a better place.
Ho also said that while Tam was a committee member of pro-democracy group Power for Democracy, which helped to organise the primaries, he had limited involvement in it. Tam only attended meetings around once a year and was not authorised to sign off on bank-related matters, Ho told the court.
Joining the ‘dark side’
The court then heard the mitigation plea of Li, a former Kwun Tong district councillor. His barrister Edward Chan told the court he grew up in a working-class family, did well in high school and attended the University of Hong Kong, where he studied social work.
Li became a social worker upon graduation, working at a school while also studying a part-time masters degree in expressive arts therapy. He served with “a lot of heart,” Chan said.
In 2019, as the city was engulfed in protests and unrest sparked by a controversial extradition bill, Li decided to run in the District Council elections and won a seat in Hip Hong, a constituency in Kwun Tong.
Chan said he submitted 41 mitigation letters on behalf of his client, including one Li wrote personally. The other letters were from his girlfriend, family members, principals at the school he worked at, former professors who taught him, and residents he served in his neighbourhood.
Li looked to be wiping back tears as Chan described the dozens of mitigation letters and who had written them.
Chan added that Li was a “good man” who “went to the dark side” when he submitted his form to join the primary election. He had changed since and wished to contribute to society, his lawyer said.
Both Tam and Li’s representatives said they should fall into the second of the three sentencing tiers, suggesting they were “active participants” meaning they could see up to 10 years in jail.
The mitigation hearing will continue on Monday with the other three defendants in the batch.
Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong after months of protests and unrest in 2019. The law criminalised secession, subversion, foreign collusion and terrorism, punishable by a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
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