Hong Kong 47: Establishment figures pen mitigation letters for democrats in landmark national security case
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong establishment figures have penned mitigation letters for prominent democrats pleading for lighter sentences in a landmark national security case involving 47 pro-democracy figures.
Former legislator Claudia Mo entered the dock on Wednesday morning smiling at the public gallery and making a “heart” gesture with her arms.
Mo is one of 45 pro-democracy figures convicted of conspiring to commit subversion over an unofficial primary poll held in July 2020, which aimed to help the opposition camp win a majority in the city’s legislature. The defendants were said to have intended to abuse their powers to indiscriminately veto the government budget, which, a panel of three judges ruled during the trial, would have plunged Hong Kong into a “constitutional crisis.”
Claudia Mo
Wearing a tan cardigan over a black dress, Mo, who pleaded guilty to the national security charge, to sat next to fellow democrat Helena Wong, who was among the 14 convicted in May.
Accepting that Mo had a “certain level of participation” in the primaries, barrister Albert Wong asked for a starting point of five to six years for the former lawmaker’s sentence.
The court was given mitigation letters including one from Abraham Shek, a pro-Beijing former lawmaker who in 2019 sided with protestors in calling for an independent inquiry into police conduct at widespread pro-democracy protests.
“Although our political stances are fairly different, Ms Mo was always ready to exchange views on policy issues,” Wong cited from Shek’s letter. “As a lawmaker I have always found this advantageous… to Hong Kong as a whole.”
Local NGO Hong Kong Unison said Mo had seen the legislature as means for good and to better protect ethnic minorities. The court also received letters from Mo’s colleagues and students from when she taught at a university, community members, as well as Cardinal Joseph Zen, another prominent democrat.
Wong also mentioned Mo’s husband, journalist Philip Bowring. “She very much hopes that she can spend the time they have left together,” Wong said. Bowring received treatment in an intensive care unit for pneumonia last year.
See also: Ex-gov’t officials pen mitigation letters for former Democratic Party chair
In response to Judge Johnny Chan, who said that former law professor Benny Tai had consulted her on the legality of the primaries, Wong said Mo had not been an organiser or promoter of the polls, and had put herself forward as knowing the relevant legal intricacies.
Helena Wong
Former Democratic Party lawmaker Wong’s lawyer Erik Shum said his client’s role in the conspiracy was “peripheral” and that she had been pressured into saying she would veto the budget.
Citing a forum on June 25, 2020, where she was “heavily criticised by the radicals” and said she would veto the budget, Shum said it was “quite clear there were no positive acts or advertisements echoing the so-called conspiracy.”
Among those who penned mitigation letters for the democrat was former transport and logistics minister Anthony Cheung, who said Wong was a “victim” of confrontation within the democratic camp. Her agreeing to veto the budget would have been “out of her character,” Cheung said.
Wong was described as moderate, pragmatic, and cooperative throughout her political career, Shum said. He pointed to Wong having voted in favour of a 2010 bill to allow district councillors five seats in the legislature, which was eventually passed, saying it showed that the ex-lawmaker had always aimed to achieve “gradual democratisation”
Kalvin Ho
Kalvin Ho, the former vice-chair of the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood (ADPL) who was among those convicted after trial, had a mitigation letter penned for him by former ADPL chair Frederick Fung.
Fung ran in the 2021 Legislative Council election, the first held after an electoral overhaul meant that only those considered “patriots” could run. Ho’s lawyer Anthony Yuen asked the three judges to take into account Fung’s view, that of a “veteran politician and a patriot.”
Ho struck the former lawmaker as someone whose vision was not confined to his own community, but sought to improve Hong Kong as a whole. Fung’s letter was one of nine, including those from Ho’s family, girlfriend, shopkeepers who knew him, and a theology professor.
Nevertheless, Ho had decided to distance himself from politics and instead focus on serving the church, Yuen said. He had recently begun studying for a master’s in Christian studies.
He urged the judges to accept that Ho had a “good motive” behind the offence, and “merely adopted an unlawful means to achieve an otherwise honourable goal: to become a lawmaker to make Hong Kong a better place.” Ho did not deserve a lengthy term, he said, suggesting a three-year jail sentence.
Frankie Fung
Senior Counsel Nigel Kat, representing Frankie Fung, asked the judges to mete out “appropriate and proportionate sentences” while confining their decision to the facts rather than “adjectives and hyperbole.”
“Its impossible not to be struck by the fact that these are people that you would never see in a dock, that the crime for which they stand is seeking change by unlawful means, being way down the road, and if it works, through the ballot box and what they hoped to be a representative legislature,” he said.
“You were trained to question, encouraged to think and debate, argue in public and in private,” Kat said of Fung, who entered a guilty plea. “This is not a street fighter… this is a keen young passenger who does his best to make his voice heard.”
Lester Shum
Former student activist and district councillor Lester Shum’s lawyer Albert Wong said his team would not “attempt to hide or trivialise” that Shum had landed squarely in the bracket of “active participant” in the conspiracy.
Wong then went on to read out Shum’s own mitigation letter, in which the activist said he understood that a substantial jail term was inevitable and that he was willing to accept all consequences. He pleaded guilty to the charge.
“Prior to my arrest, I had been a political activist for some years with a self-perceived goal of creating a more just, egalitarian and liberal society and political institution,” it read. “I was a person filled with anger; worse still, anger sometimes evolved into hatred or resentments, which occasionally fuelled some drives of my political acts, rhetoric and utterances.”
“The public had placed hopes upon me to serve the public. Not only did my actions contradict that purpose, but since being remanded in jail custody I have not been able to continue to serve the public. To those who looked up to me to be a responsible public figure, I have let them down, and for that I am deeply remorseful, regretful and deeply apologetic,” Shum wrote.
Henry Wong
Barrister Esmond Wong, read out the letter written by his client, former district councillor Henry Wong, in which he mentioned his family. “They are the best parents in the world, and up to this day, my family has not given up on me, and I am very thankful for that,” Henry Wong wrote.
“During the epidemic, I was not able to take care of my family members, and I could only worry about them alone, but I could not do anything about it, which made me reflect a lot. Seeing them living in good health and spirit is the happiest thing for me now,” he said.
The ex-councillor, who pleaded guilty to taking part in the conspiracy, hoped to continue serving the community once he had completed his sentence, the barrister said, adding he had brought actual improvements to the livelihoods of residents in Tin Shui Wai during his time as a district councillor.
The court will reconvene on Thursday for mitigation pleas from Jimmy Sham and Winnie Yu.
Most of the democrats involved in the case have been detained since being taken into police custody on February 28, 2021, ahead of a marathon bail hearing. The maximum penalty for a subversion offence under the security law is life in prison.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. 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.
Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps
Help safeguard press freedom & keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team
