45 citizens were convicted of organizing primary elections to select opposition candidates for the 2020 legislative elections. They were given effective prison sentences of between four and 10 years.
The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, John Lee, stated this Tuesday that “no subversion will be tolerated” in the territory, welcoming the conviction of 45 pro-democracy activists, according to Chinese state media.
“This case has shown that anyone who subverts state power and endangers national security will ultimately be punished according to law and will not be tolerated,” Lee said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
the justice of Hong Kong sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists this Tuesday to prison terms of up to ten years for holding unofficial primaries in 2020 to select opposition candidates for the region’s parliament.
Only two of the 47 defendants were acquitted, while the rest received sentences ranging from four years and two months to ten years, the sentence imposed on jurist Benny Tai Yiu-ting.
Benny Tai and 30 other defendants, including former student leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung and former congresswoman Claudia Mo Man-ching, pleaded guilty in May.
14 other defendants had pleaded not guilty, including former deputies Leung Kwok-hung (a former Marxist known as “Long Hair”), Lam Cheuk-ting, Helena Wong Pik-wan and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen and the journalist Gwyneth Ho Kwai- justice.
More than 200 people lined up in moderate rain and wind to get a seat in the courtroom, including one of the acquitted defendants, former district councilor Lee Yue-shun.
This has been the largest trial to date under the national security law imposed by the Chinese Communist Party on Hong Kong in 2020, involving a total of 47 activists and politicians.
The Prosecutor’s Office accused them of trying to guarantee a legislative majority to indiscriminately veto the budgets and thus paralyze the Hong Kong Government and overthrow the city’s then leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
The July 2020 primary attracted about 610,000 people, more than 13% of the city’s registered electorate. But the government postponed legislative elections that year, citing risks to public health during the pandemic.
Electoral laws were subsequently revised, dramatically reducing the public’s ability to vote and increasing the number of pro-Beijing MPs.
The entry into force of new security law in March — four years after Beijing imposed a similar law that virtually eliminated political dissent — has raised concerns about the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong, a city neighboring Macau.
The United States, Taiwan and Australia criticized the sentences, to which the Chinese government reacted, considering that these criticisms “desecrate and trample” the rule of law.
Source: Observadora
