A line of at least 60 people had formed on Monday outside a Hong Kong courthouse where 45 pro-democracy advocates are set to face sentencing in a landmark national security trial the following day.
On Monday evening, the Judiciary announced the number of seats that would be available in the public gallery of the main courtroom on Tuesday: five.
People queuing outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, ahead of the sentencing hearing for the 47 democrats case, on November 18, 2024. Photo: James Lee/HKFP.
Of the 47 democrats charged with conspiring to commit subversion in the city’s largest national security case to date, 14 were found guilty in May, while two were acquitted. Thirty-one had earlier pleaded guilty to the charge.
Former legal scholar Benny Tai and prominent activist Joshua Wong are among those set to appear before designated national security judges Andrew Chan, Alex Lee and Johnny Chan at 10 am on Tuesday to hear their sentences.
A vehicle barrier set up outside West Kowloon Law Courts Building, in Hong Kong, on November 18, 2024, ahead of the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy figures the following day. Photo: James Lee/HKFP.
Local media reported on Sunday that a queue of more than 60 people had formed outside West Kowloon Law Courts Building, though none responded to reporters’ questions.
More than a dozen people approached by an HKFP reporter on Monday declined to say which case they were queueing for, and shook their heads when approached. Many were wearing masks.
Some in the queue arrived after reading the news reports about the queue, suspecting that some people had been paid to line up for seats in the courtroom so that others could not attend the hearing. When the landmark trial began in February 2023, evidence emerged that some people had been paid to wait in the queue.
“ET,” wearing a T-shirt that reads “Born in turbulent times, there’s a sense of responsibility,” said she suspected that many in the queue outside Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Law Courts Building on November 18, 2024, were paid to be there. Photo: James Lee/HKFP.
One woman who gave her name as “ET” told HKFP she had been in line for some 24 hours.
“When I saw on the news that people had came to the West Kowloon courts, I was stunned. Are they here because they care about the case, or are they just paid to get in line?” she said in Cantonese.
She gestured to the front of the queue, saying she suspected that about the first dozen people had been paid to line up.
People queueing outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on November 18. 2024. Photo: James Lee/HKFP.
Ko, who was also in line for Tuesday’s sentencing, said she was lining up to support former district councillor Andrew Wan, who represented the Shek Yam constituency for more than a decade until 2015.
She recounted how several households at her public housing estate had no hot water and that the Housing Department was not able to help for more than two years. When Wan was re-elected to the Shek Yam seat in 2019, he hired a surveyor and fixed the issue in three weeks, Ko said.
“I’m here on behalf of everyone from our neighbourhood,” said Ko.
Both Ko and ET were conversing with others in the queue on Monday afternoon, including elderly activist Lui Yuk-lin.
A Sabertooth armoured vehicle parked outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on November 18, 2024. Photo: James Lee/HKFP.
Also lining up for a seat in the main courtroom’s public gallery was former district councillor Lam Chun, who served alongside defendant and fellow ex-councillor Ng Kin-wai for Yuen Long.
Only five members of the public would be able to sit in the main courtroom for Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, however, as seats have been reserved for the defendants’ family and friends, as well as the press, the Judiciary announced on Monday evening.
“Since the number of seats are limited, only those members of the public who have secured admission tickets will be allowed to enter the designated public galleries,” the statement read.
Other members of the public will be seated in extension courtrooms “on a first-come-first-served and one-person-one-ticket basis.” Admission tickets will be distributed 45 minutes before the start of the hearing.
National security police presence
Chief superintendent of Hong Kong’s national security police Steve Li was outside the entrance of the courthouse on Monday, as police officers set up yellow vehicle barriers outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Monday afternoon. The barriers had been set up around the building, near the main entrance and at a nearby bus stop.
Chief superintendent of the police national security department Steve Li (third from left) outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, in Hong Kong, on November 18, 2024. Photo: James Lee/HKFP.
The police had also parked a Chinese-made Sabertooth armoured vehicle on Tung Chau street, near the main entrance of the courthouse, and more than 20 officers were stationed nearby. Three officers from the Counter Terrorism Response Unit were seen patrolling the area.
