On Monday, Hong Kong’s largest national security trial began with 47 pro-democracy activists and politicians accused of “conspiring to commit subversion” by holding an unofficial public vote in 2020, just days after a new, stringent security law was put into place.
16 people are anticipated to enter not guilty pleas, though that number may alter by Monday as defendants consider their options in light of possible punishments.
Among those charged are well-known activists “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Gordon Ng Ching-hang, who is one of five accused of being a “major organizer” of a poll intended as a way for the democratic camp to select their strongest candidates for a Legislative Council election that was later postponed. Ng Ching-hang could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Internationally renowned activists like Claudia Mo, a former journalist turned legislator, and Joshua Wong, who has already been found guilty on other charges, are just two of the defendants who have entered guilty pleas and will be sentenced after the trial is over. Together, the 47 make up a large portion of what’s left of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy leadership after massive rallies for political reform in 2019 came to an impasse with the arrival of COVID-19 and the national security law drove many people into exile.
The future of the Hong Kong democracy movement is unofficially on trial, according to Eric Lai, a non-resident fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, because “pro-democracy actions including participating in the legislature” could one day be viewed as risks to national security.
“The pro-democracy camp has gotten more than 60% of the vote in the city’s elections over the past ten years, and now the government has chosen to arrest and criminalize all the main leaders in Hong Kong,” Lai told the reporters.
It’s kind of a test for these leaders and their supporters, too.
Helena Wong Pik-wan, a former lawmaker, is seen outside of court after the prosecution’s appeal against her being granted bail was denied. She is clapping her hands collectively in thanks while donning a lime green t-shirt. There is another woman with her. She’s surrounded by media.
The defendants could receive up to three years in prison under the security law, which went into effect on June 30, 2020, between three and ten years in prison for “active participation” in the conspiracy, and between ten years and life in prison if they are deemed “principal offenders.”
Only Ng and four other defendants—former professor Benny Tai, former lawmaker Au Nok-hin, and former district council members Andrew Hiu Ka-yin and Chung Kam-lun—are subject to the latter charge.
According to court documents, Tai and Au are accused of some of the most serious offenses for their “clear attempt to subvert the State power, paralyse the [Hong Kong] Government’s] operation.” The defendants allegedly believed that a crackdown on their activities would gain support from other countries and result in the implementation of sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong government officials.
The election, which took place in July 2020, served as an unofficial “primary” for pro-democracy candidates seeking to win the next Legislative Council election in September 2020.
The democratic camp ran for office in the hopes of winning, then using the electoral majority to enact democratic change in Hong Kong.
Some of the platform’s demands were similar to those made during the city’s mass demonstrations in 2014 and 2019: resignation of Carrie Lam, an independent investigation into claims of police brutality during the protests, and political reform with the goal of implementing universal suffrage for the territory.
In accordance with Hong Kong’s existing political structure, Beijing selects a group of individuals to choose the territory’s leader, while only a part of the territory’s legislative seats are decided by public vote.
More than 600,000 people cast ballots in the July 2020 election, many of them spent hours in line to do so, but the results were effectively thrown out when the administration declared the parliamentary election would be postponed for a year due to COVID-19.
Following the election, police swooped on the 47 defendants and six additional people in a morning round-up of the kind usually reserved for organized crime organizations as Hong Kong went into lockdown.
Since their arrest in January 2021, the majority of the 47 have been kept in prison, with only 13 receiving bail. Detained activists were unable to communicate with their loved ones, attorneys, or mail for months as a result of the strict COVID-19 regulations.
According to reports, some defendants have been denied access to Statements of Facts outlining the accusations made against them, forcing their attorneys to navigate the court system on faith. A media embargo on the case was in place; it was only removed in August of last year.
The trial has been compared to a “pre-emptive strike” against an entire generation of democracy activists and former legislators, whose ages range from 24 to 66, according to William Nee, a researcher and advocacy coordinator at Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
“From the perspective of international law, the accusations are completely ludicrous. The right to run for office is a human right. Once chosen, they are free to cast their ballots as they like. Evidently, Beijing is stating that the mere possibility that you could desire to run for office and cast ballots against our preferences constitutes a plot to subvert international norms and standards, Nee added.
“That’s what makes this case so awful in many respects. It is an outright attack on Hong Kong’s democracy.
For criminal defendants in Hong Kong’s common law system, pleading guilty on the first day of trial typically results in a reduction in their sentence of up to 25%; however, this does not apply in national security trials. Neither does the jury system, as this case will be decided by a panel of three judges that the city’s chief executive personally selected.
The national security system in Hong Kong has been likened to a “Frankenstein” parallel system by Maya Wang, a senior China researcher for Human Rights Watch.
About 90 days are anticipated for the experiment. The accused may be given credit for “time served” for their pre-trial incarceration at the conclusion of the process, but the majority are given a minimum term of three years in jail.
As we move forward, everything will be fairly uncertain. I believe it is quite obvious that Beijing is using fairly complex legalese to undermine the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, Wang told the media.
“So many people in Hong Kong are experiencing cognitive dissonance because they are witnessing them being tried and detained. It truly serves as a visual illustration of repression.
