A court in Hong Kong on Tuesday sentenced 45 democracy activists to prison terms of up to 10 years for violating Beijing’s controversial national security law.
The trial of the group known as the “Hong Kong 47” was the largest ever for alleged violations of the legislation, which was first implemented in June 2020.
The group of opposition activists was charged more than three years ago.
The trial lasted from February to December 2023.
The group includes former parliamentarians, academics and activists.
Among them are former student leader Joshua Wong, who received four years and eight months, and legal scholar Benny Tai, who was sentenced by the court to 10 years in prison.
Wong and 30 other defendants had already pleaded guilty at the beginning of the proceedings.
Of the remaining 16 defendants, the judges found 14 guilty at the end of May this year, while two were acquitted.
The 47 were charged with subversion in relation to an unofficial primary election for Hong Kong’s 2020 Legislative Council (LegCo), which was later cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The case had caused a stir and was sharply criticised internationally.
The human rights organisation, Human Right Watch, said the judgements showed how civil liberties and the independence of the judiciary in Hong Kong had been undermined since the Chinese central government passed the national security law four years ago.
Taiwan’s presidential office in Taipei released a statement accusing Beijing of using unjust trials to suppress the political participation and freedom of speech of Hong Kong’s democrats.
In London, Britain’s Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Catherine West said that China’s imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong eroded the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers.
“Today’s sentencing is a clear demonstration of the Hong Kong authorities’ use of the NSL to criminalise political dissent,” West said in a statement.
“Those sentenced today were exercising their right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of political participation, as guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Basic Law,” she added.
“The UK will always stand up for the people of Hong Kong, and all states should uphold their international obligations to protect these fundamental rights.”
China’s Foreign Ministry once again backed the Hong Kong judges’ decision.
Beijing supports the legal punishment of acts that endanger national security, said spokesman Lin Jian in Beijing.
The central government also rejects the use of legal cases by Western countries to interfere in China’s internal affairs, he said.
According to media reports, several hundred people lined up in front of the court as the verdicts were being handed down, including diplomats from the European Union and several western countries.
Police cordoned off a wide area around the building in the Kowloon district of the former British crown colony.
When China regained control of Hong Kong in 1997 it promised to allow democratic freedoms to continue for 50 years.
However, it has tightened controls, often in reaction to protesters demanding more democracy in the territory.
In mid-2020, Beijing imposed the strict national security law there to further silence dissent.
The law is aimed at activists that Beijing sees as subversive, separatist, terrorist or conspiratorial. (dpa/NAN)
