Hong Kong 47: Judge calls community service ‘impossible’ sentence for subversion as mitigation hearings end
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong court has heard the last mitigation pleas in the city’s largest national security case to date, with judges calling one defendant’s request for community service “impossible” given the severity of the offence.
Social worker Hendrick Lui and businessman Mike Lam appeared before a panel of three national security judges at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Tuesday. It was the pair’s turn to submit mitigation pleas before being sentenced for conspiring to subvert state power under the Beijing-imposed national security law.
The offence revolves around an unofficial primary election in July 2020 that aimed to help the pro-democracy camp secure a majority in the city’s legislature. Judges ruled that the scheme would have plunged Hong Kong into a “constitutional crisis.”
Both Lui and Lam ran in the primary. During the trial, Lam was among four defendants who testified for the prosecution.
Lam’s lawyer, Alex Fan, said his client was a latecomer to the primaries, only confirming his candidacy the month before the election. He did not organise the primaries or sign the “Inked Without Regret” declaration, a document stating that primary participants would use their powers as lawmakers to veto the government budget and paralyse the city’s administration.
The businessman also assisted the authorities by testifying as a prosecution witness during the trial, Fan said.
The lawyer ventured a “suggestion” for Lam’s sentence, asking the court to consider “realistically or unrealistically” handing him a community service order.
Judge Andrew Chan responded, “let me say to you Mr Fan, that is refused.”
Alex Lee, another judge, said the panel’s “preliminary view” was that the case was “far too serious to warrant a community service order.” He added that Fan would have a “very high hurdle to overcome” in convincing the judges that community service was an appropriate punishment.
“Don’t ask for the impossible, please,” Chan said.
The judges added that while Lam had assisted the authorities by giving information to the police and had testified for the prosecution, the information he shared did not result in any arrests, nor did the judges cite any evidence he provided in their verdict.
The maximum penalty for subversion is life imprisonment. Under the national security law, judges classify the defendant’s level of involvement in an offence into three tiers – “other participant,” “active participant” and “principal offender” – to decide their jail term.
Fan also read out parts of Lam’s mitigation letter. In the note, Lam said he had been “extremely childish and foolish” to join the primaries four years ago. He said he realised now that many Hong Kong people, including himself, had been influenced by “exaggerations” from foreign countries and the media.
Lam, who owned pro-democracy chain store Abouthai, also brought up his background as a businessman and said he was responsible for the divisions in society as a “leader” of the “yellow economic circle.”
He cited a speech that Chinese leader Xi Jinping made when he came to Hong Kong to mark the Handover anniversary in 2022, in which he said that “Hong Kong cannot afford to be in chaos.”
“I sincerely apologise to the central government, the [Hong Kong] SAR government – especially the Hong Kong Customs and the Hong Kong Police Force – and all of the citizens affected,” Lam wrote.
‘Misguided desire’
Lui, a social worker, also had his turn at mitigation on Tuesday. His legal representative Kevin Chan said Lui’s conviction meant he would lose his qualification as a social worker, a profession he had long aspired to, for good.
Chan said the defendant had come from a broken family and had been abused by his father. Lui’s life only improved after he was adopted and “given care and affection for the first time,” Chan said.
He urged the judges to consider the fact that he was a “political novice” who had deep commitments to the community. Lui had joined the scheme with a “misguided desire” to pressure the government to respond to political demands, Chan said.
“He’s the type I would describe as a good person. We hope the court can show mercy in his sentence so that he could re-join the society in the not too distant future,” Chan said, adding that Lui knew he was wrong and naïve.
He ended his submission by calling on the judges to impose “healing sentences” on the defendants, saying that “spiritually, they are broken.”
“I ask the lordship to impose healing sentence[s] so they can all heal from this trauma. Finally… society needs to be healed also,” Chan added.
No sentencing date set
With Lui and Lam completing their mitigation proceedings on Tuesday morning, the court has now heard from all of the defendants, apart from journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, who opted not to enter a mitigation plea and therefore risks a heavier sentence.
Ho was among 16 defendants who pleaded not guilty and sat through a 118-day trial. In May, 14 of the pro-democracy figures were convicted. The judgement identified Ho as one of the participants with the “most radical political view.”
A sentencing date has not yet been set for the case. Most of the 45 who were convicted have already been detained for over three years since they were charged.
The primaries at the centre of the case came after protests and unrest in 2019, which erupted over a controversial bill. The demonstrations escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment.
After the protests, Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure.
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