Jimmy Lai among 7 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures to lose appeal against conviction over taking part in 2019 demo
Hong Kong Free Press
Prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy figures Martin Lee, Margaret Ng, Jimmy Lai, Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho have lost an appeal to overturn their convictions for knowingly taking part in an unauthorised assembly on August 18, 2019.
The Court of Final Appeal delivered its verdict on Monday, after hearing the appeal in June. A panel of five judges unanimously rejected the democrats’ argument that their conviction was disproportionate to the protection of their basic human rights.
“The defendants’ proposition is unsustainable. It is contrary to all established principles governing constitutional challenges in Hong Kong and especially contrary to accepted principles for assessing proportionality,” the judgement read.
Speaking to reporters outside the court after receiving the ruling, Ng said she was not at liberty to comment on the decision as she had not studied the court’s judgement.
“We just want to take this occasion to thank our legal teams and all the people who have been supporting us,” Ng said.
She told reporters she was also speaking on behalf of Martin Lee, who did not take questions after the hearing. Ng and Martin Lee were the only appellants present in court on Monday to hear the verdict.
Of the seven, Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho and Leung are currently detained under the national security law. Lai, who has also been charged under the Beijing-enacted legislation, is serving a prison term of five years and nine months for fraud.
The seven were found guilty in April 2021 of both organising and taking part in the August demonstration, and later sentenced to up to a year in jail. On that day, organisers estimated that 1.7 million people attended an assembly in Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park, as months-long protests against a since-withdrawn extradition amendment bill continued.
The conviction over organising the unauthorised assembly was successfully overturned last August.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
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