Hong Kong activist Wong Ji-yuet has filed an appeal against her sentence in a landmark subversion case involving 47 prominent pro-democracy figures.
Wong, 27, was jailed for four years and five months last month along with 44 others convicted of “conspiracy to commit subversion” over their roles in an unofficial primary election that aimed to help them secure a majority in the city’s Legislative Council. Two were cleared, with the acquittal one set to face an appeal by the Department of Justice.
Defendant Wong Ji-yuet. Photo: Lea Mok/HKFP.
In July last year, Wong was sentenced to 37 months behind bars over rioting in 2019, when pro-democracy demonstrators had rallied across different areas in Kowloon on November 18, 2019 to show support for protesters involved in a two-week siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Wong had been remanded in custody since March 2023 after she pleaded guilty to rioting.
Wong participated in the Umbrella Movement in 2014 when she was a secondary school student. In 2015, she became the spokesperson of for youth activist group Scholarism, which was heavily involved in the 2014 Umbrella Movement but disbanded in 2016.
She is among 14 democrats who have thus far lodged appeal bids in the national security case.
The High Court. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Among them are 12 democrats who pleaded not guilty and are seeking to overturn their convictions and sentences, including journalist-turned activist Gwyneth Ho, who was sentenced to seven years, and veteran activist “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, who was jailed six years and nine months.
On November 19, 45 former legislators, ex-district councillors, and activists received jail sentences ranging from four years and two months to 10 years as the landmark national security case came to a close, with prominent legal scholar Benny Tai receiving a decade behind bars.
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 trial of the 16 democrats who pleaded not guilty lasted 118 days, during which a “massive amount of evidence and submissions” were cited by the prosecution and the defence, the government said.
After the sentences were handed down, Taiwan, overseas groups and foreign officials condemned the case, with Taiwan’s Presidential Office “strongly condemning the CCP government” over what it called suppression of political participation and freedom of expression.
The Hong Kong government slammed what it described as untruthful smearing and unscrupulous attacks by foreign governments and organisations.
