More than three years and eight months since 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were charged with conspiring to commit subversion, their family members on Tuesday learned when they would next see their loved ones without a screen separating them.
Tsang Kin-shing, aka “the Bull,” lines up outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on November 19, 2024, ahead of the sentencing hearing for 45 pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong’s largest national security case to date. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The former legislators, ex-district councillors, and activists received jail sentences ranging from four years and two months to 10 years on Tuesday morning as the landmark national security case came to a close, with prominent legal scholar Benny Tai receiving a decade behind bars.
The court ruled that the democrats, had they won a majority, had intended to abuse their powers to indiscriminately veto the government budget and force the chief executive to resign. This would have plunged the city into a “constitutional crisis,” they ruled.
Philip Bowring, Claudia Mo’s husband
Speaking to reporters outside the court on Tuesday morning, British journalist Philip Bowring, who is married to former lawmaker Claudia Mo, said it was difficult to comment on the judges decisions. Mo, 67, was jailed four years and two months.
Philip Bowring, husband of former lawmaker Claudia Mo. File photo: HKU JMSC.
“You know the circumstances. You know the history. There’s really nothing for me to add to what is already known to the public,” Bowring said.
The family had been waiting for the sentencing for a long time, and hearing Mo’s jail term meant there would be an “end date,” which Bowring said could be seen as “progress.”
He described Mo as being in good spirits, adding: “we will survive this.”
Claudia Mo. Photo: Jennifer Creery/HKFP.
When asked if he and Mo would leave Hong Kong after her release, Bowring said they had no plans to leave the city.
Chan Po-ying, Leung Kwok-heung’s wife
Chan Po-ying, chair of the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats and wife of jailed activist “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, called the sentencing a “miscarriage of justice.”
The League of Social Democrats (LSD) chairperson Chan Po-ying outside the government headquarters on October 25, 2023. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“I’ve been mentally prepared for the sentencing, and this was not a pleasant surprise nor a shock to me. My only thought is that it’s a miscarriage of justice and that they [the democrats] should not have been detained for even one day,” Chan told reporters outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Tuesday, speaking Cantonese.
“What [the democrats] did – participating in the primary election – was hoping to use the rights authorised by the Basic Law, to veto the government budget and to pressure the government to follow the public’s will, the will of most people in the general public,” she added.
Leung, a 68-year-old activist and the eldest of the 47 democrats, was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.
Raphael Wong, a long-time colleague of Leung, told HKFP before the sentencing hearing that Leung had recently undergone surgery while in custody.
“I am angry about the sentencing, but it is expected considering the current circumstances,” Chan said. “I hope for the democrats, no matter how many years they have to serve, they can face it with positivity.”
Chan expressed her gratitude to the legal teams who had exerted a lot of effort over a long period to “complete an impossible mission.”
Emilia Wong, Ventus Lau’s partner
Emilia Wong, the girlfriend of jailed activist Ventus Lau, said she felt calm about the sentencing.
“Lau was sentenced to 53 months in jail, which was not the worst scenario I’ve imagined… Therefore I feel calm,” Wong said in Cantonese, adding that she believed Lau shared a similar feeling.
Emilia Wong, partner of detained activist Ventus Lau, at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on November 19, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Lau, the 31-year-old former district councillor, was already serving a separate sentence of four years and six months for rioting.
“I will live my life step by step, and wait for him to be released,” Wong said.
Ventus Lau outside court on June 10, 2020. File photo: Studio Incendo.
Wong added that she believed the sentencing would stop people from speaking after seeing the democrats sent to jail for up to 10 years.
Gwyneth Ho: ‘Make new connections’
As of 2 pm on Tuesday, few of the democrats had responded to their sentencing, either through family members, friends, or through letters sent earlier from detention.
However, a long message was posted on Gwyneth Ho’s Facebook page at 12 pm. The former journalist turned activist was jailed for seven years.
The post recalled the 2019 protests and unrest and Ho’s experiences over the past few years, adding that she “ran in the last free and fair election in Hong Kong” before her arrest.
Journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho. File photo: Gwyneth Ho, via Facebook.
“Prosecuting democratic politicians and activists across the spectrum, the case was seen as the turning point at which Hong Kong became a lost cause. People were scared into silence and forced to give up hope for democracy in Hong Kong,” the post read, adding that Ho chose to fight the best fight she could.
“What really defines our identity is not the suffering itself, but the way in which we face it. It is in action that one defines oneself, and only people who truly know who they are can open up, make new connections in the most unexpected circumstances, and bring about change,” it continued.
