Forty-five Hong Kong pro-democracy figures face sentencing on Tuesday in the city’s largest national security case to date. They face up to life imprisonment after being convicted of conspiring to commit subversion over their roles in an unofficial legislative primary election held in 2020.
A protester stands next to a banner bearing the images of 47 of Hong Kongs most prominent pro-democracy figures during a rally organised by Taiwan-based Hongkongers and members of local civic groups in Taipei on June 9, 2024 to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of Hong Kong’s 2019 protests. Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/AFP.
Former law professor Benny Tai, 60, and prominent activist Joshua Wong, 28, are among those set to appear before designated national security judges Andrew Chan, Alex Lee and Johnny Chan at 10 am on Tuesday to hear their sentences.
The sentencing draws the high-profile case to a close more than 1,400 days after 55 democrats were rounded up on January 6, 2021. Forty-seven of them were officially charged on February 28, 2021, with a majority detained since then as they awaited trial and later sentencing.
Tai and Wong were among 31 defendants who pleaded guilty to the charge in 2022. The remaining 16 faced a 118-day trial that began in February 2023. More than a year later, the court convicted 14 defendants and cleared barrister Lawrence Lau and former district councillor Lee Yue-shun on May 30. They became the first individuals acquitted under the national security law.
Joshua Wong. File photo: Studio Incendo.
At the centre of the case is an unofficial primary poll held in July 2020, through which the opposition camp hoped to identify candidates that would help it win majority control of the legislature in an upcoming election. The court ruled that the democrats, had they won a majority, had intended to abuse their powers to indiscriminately veto the government budget and force the chief executive to resign.
The conspiracy was initiated and promoted by Tai, whose goal was to “undermine, destroy or overthrow the existing political system and structure of [Hong Kong] established under the Basic Law and the policy of One Country, Two Systems,” the judges wrote in a 319-page judgement in May. This would have plunged the city into a “constitutional crisis,” they ruled.
Under the national security law, the 45 democrats face three tiers of penalty depending on their level of participation in the offence. The maximum sentence for subversion is life behind bars, while the minimum sentence is “fixed term imprisonment of not more than three years, short-term detention or restriction.”
Activists Owen Chow (second from left) and Ventus Lau (fourth from left) hold up hand gestures as they get on a Correctional Services vehicle with other charged democrats on March 3, 2021. Photo: Studio Incendo.
During the mitigation hearings that took place between June and September, some democrats argued that their involvement in the primaries was limited, while others said they had no way of knowing that the primaries were illegal under the security law. Some also submitted mitigation letters from establishment figures.
Beijing imposed the national security law 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.
