‘I go almost every day’: The elderly Hong Kong democracy advocates following 2019 protest court cases
Hong Kong Free Press
When Poon walks into Hong Kong’s District Court, it feels like home.
Like clockwork, the sexagenarian opens her bag for a security check, fills her empty bottle – no liquids are allowed past the screening – and makes sure her phone is on silent. Then she settles into a plastic chair in the courtroom’s public gallery, greeting the other retirees for whom the routine is just as familiar.
“I go almost every day,” Poon told HKFP this month, after a case in which a woman was sentenced over her participation in a protest in 2019.
Poon is among a group of elderly spectators who spend much of their retirement filing in and out of Hong Kong’s courtrooms, from the lowest-level magistrates’ courts to the Court of Final Appeal. Over the past three years, they have listened to countless bail hearings, trials, verdicts and appeals – many of them related to mass demonstrations in 2019 and the ensuing fallout.
They had never set foot into a court before 2019, the spectators said. But they told HKFP they had long been advocates of the city’s democratic ideals, having taken to the streets in major marches over the past two decades.
With protests effectively banned amid Beijing’s national security law and ample time on their hands, showing up in court day after day was one of the few ways the retirees could still support the pro-democracy movement. They have also created a small community along the way – the retirees did not know each other before but have since become friends, occasionally grabbing meals together in between court hearings.
Their interest in these legal proceedings comes at a time when Hong Kong authorities have repeatedly defended the impartiality of the courts amid accusations from Western countries that the city’s rule of law is under threat.
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HKFP spoke to half a dozen court spectators in their 60s and 70s, all of whom asked to use pseudonyms as they feared reprisal from the authorities. Before becoming regulars in the public gallery, they said they had little legal knowledge and were often left confused by the language and complex proceedings. But over time, they have gotten to grips with how the courts work.
They have also come to learn the judges’ personalities, taking mental note of those they thought were harsher, and those deemed more sympathetic to people accused of wrongdoing as a result of their participation in the protests.
“The courtroom is like a classroom where I can learn different things, and it’s free,” said Ada, a court watcher. Like all of the interviewees, she spoke to HKFP in Cantonese.
“Now I know what mens rea and actus reus is,” she added, referring to two Latin terms sometimes heard in court. Mens rea refers to a defendant’s intention while committing an alleged crime, while actus reus refers to the act itself.
Ada admitted that the hearings could get boring, and on occasion she found herself fighting the urge to fall asleep. But going to court, she added, was comfortable. “It’s air conditioned, and there are toilets and security,” Ada said. “It’s a good way to kill time.”
‘I want to know what’s happening in society’
Hong Kong was rocked by protests and unrest in 2019, with over 10,000 people arrested on charges such as unlawful assembly, possessing offensive weapons and rioting.
More than four years on, police were still charging protesters they had earlier released on bail. Once charged, legal proceedings begin, bringing the possibility of jail time if a conviction is secured.
Of the 10,279 people arrested on protest-related charges, 2,955 people have been charged as of the end of December, police said in a press conference in February. In a response to HKFP on Tuesday, police said they would “handle the remaining cases in accordance with the law.”
In the wake of the unrest, Beijing imposed a national security law, criminalising secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. The city also revived a colonial-era sedition law, which has seen people jailed over social media posts and “seditious” clothing.
To keep up to date, the elderly spectators said they mostly browsed a Telegram group that informs followers which protest-related cases will be heard the next day. Updated every evening, the group – created during the 2019 protests – lists defendants’ last names, their age at the time of arrest, their alleged offence, and the judge overseeing their case.
Ada said she did not rely on the Telegram group. Instead, she would check a “court diary” on the Judiciary’s website most evenings. Stella, also a retiree who frequently attends court, keeps a planner in which she jots down the dates of upcoming hearings.
“When the judge says when the next mention is, or when the sentencing will be, I just write it down,” Stella told HKFP.
For hearings they did not attend, the court spectators said they would check a Telegram group that provides updates on court cases. The group summarises what the defence and the prosecution said in hearings, and also notes when the case will next appear in court.
They read local Chinese news outlets such as The Witness and Court News, both of which were founded in recent years and focus on court reporting, filling a gap in Hong Kong’s independent media scene after the closure of Apple Daily and Stand News following police raids and the arrests of senior editorial and management staff.
Although Telegram groups and court reporting outlets were useful resources, Stella said there was no substitute for being in the courtroom.
“When you go in person, you can see a lot,” she said. “You can see the defendants. And you can hear the tone of the judges and their exchanges with the lawyers.”
The court goers said that while most of the cases that they sat it on were related to the protests, they also went to other hearings.
Ada said she recently went to a trial involving eight police officers accused of beating homeless people and destroying their personal belongings during an anti-drug operation almost four years ago.
“I go to these hearings because I want to know what’s happening in society,” she said.
Not without risk
The elderly court spectators, however, acknowledge that their pastime has an element of risk. In April 2022, six court goers were arrested by national security police under the sedition law on suspicion of causing a nuisance during hearings.
Two were charged with “uttering seditious words” at a hearing months earlier, when rights activist Chow Hang-tung was sentenced after being found guilty of inciting others to take part in a banned 2021 vigil for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
During the hearing, the public gallery had erupted in applause after Chow gave a speech, with the magistrate ordering police to note the identities of those who clapped, saying the court was “not a stage for performance.”
The spectators told HKFP they noticed fewer familiar faces in the public gallery nowadays compared to two or three years ago. They said some were scared, while others had left Hong Kong.
What keeps them coming back is the desire to see first-hand how protest cases are being handled by Hong Kong’s courts. Some said they also hoped their presence in the courtroom offered comfort to defendants who were not high-profile activists, but just regular Hongkongers.
“The famous activists don’t need our support,” said Zoe, another court watcher. “One time, a young defendant walked over to us and said they were very grateful that we were here. He said he felt sad when the public gallery is empty.”
The spectators expressed sympathy for the protesters jailed over their involvement in the demonstrations over four years ago. They said they sometimes cried when judges handed down heavy sentences.
“The young people were on the frontlines of the protests in 2019,” said Stella. “Now, it’s like we are on the frontlines.”
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