Hong Kong veteran democracy activists are sentenced
Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners jailed for up to 12 months each over mass protests which saw 1.7million take to the streets
- Nine veteran Hong Kong democracy activists arrived in court for sentencing
- Jimmy Lai has been handed 12 months in prison for his role in the protests
- Martin Lee was given a suspended sentence of 11 months in the same case
- They are the latest in a string of anti-establishment figures to face the courts
Nine veteran Hong Kong democracy activists have been sentenced today for their roles in one of the city’s biggest-ever protests.
Media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been handed 12 months in prison for his role in organising mass protests during anti-government demonstrations in 2019.
Hong Kong’s District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock gave Lai a 15-month sentence, reduced by three months in mitigation.
It is the first time the 73-year-old – who is currently in custody after his arrest under Beijing’s sweeping national security law – has received a sentence for his activism.
Alongside Lai, four other defendants also received immediate jail terms of eight to 18 months for organising and knowingly participating in the peaceful protest on August 18, 2019, which called for democracy and greater police accountability.
Martin Lee, who helped launch the city’s largest opposition Democratic Party in the 1990s and is often called the former British colony’s ‘father of democracy,’ was given a suspended sentence of 11 months in the same case.
Three other defendants received suspended sentences.
Former lawmakers Martin Lee, left, and Albert Ho arrive at West Kowloon court in Hong Kong to receive sentencing after being found guilty of organising an unauthorised assembly in 2019
Pro-democracy activist Martin Lee, arrives at a court in Hong Kong Friday, April 16. Lee has been sentenced to 11 months in prison. He helped launch the city’s largest opposition Democratic Party in the 1990s and is often called the former British colony’s ‘father of democracy’
Diplomatic representatives from The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Canada and Australia wait to enter the West Kowloon court in Hong Kong
Shortly before the sentencing was handed down, prosecutors pressed two more fresh charges against Lai – an additional count of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the sweeping national security law, and conspiring to obstruct the course of justice.
The democracy campaigners faced up to five years in prison for participating in unauthorised assemblies.
Organisers say 1.7 million people, almost one quarter of Hong Kong’s population, turned out for a huge rally that formed the backbone of demonstrations that wracked the city throughout 2019.
Jade Lai (centre, blue jacket), daughter of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, enters the West Kowloon court in Hong Kong on Friday. Her father has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for his role in organising mass protests during anti-government demonstrations in 2019
Organisers said around 1.7 million people – a quarter of Hong Kong’s population – took part in the August 2019 protest for which nine democracy activists will be sentenced
A group of pro-democracy protesters wearing masks are pictured reacting after police fired tear gas during anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong on June 12, 2019
The nine include some of Hong Kong’s most prominent activists, many of whom have spent decades advocating non-violence in their ultimately fruitless campaign for universal suffrage.
They are the latest in a string of anti-establishment figures to face the courts as China implements a sweeping crackdown on dissent.
Supporters, family members, journalists and diplomats – representing the EU, the United States, Canada, Sweden, Australia, and Germany – were present at the hearing.
Among the defendants are Martin Lee, 82, a respected barrister known as the ‘father of democracy’ in Hong Kong, who was once chosen by Beijing to help write the city’s mini-constitution.
They also include Margaret Ng, a 73-year-old barrister and former opposition lawmaker.
Media tycoon Lai, 73, was brought to the court from custody, where he is being held after arrest under Beijing’s new national security law.
All nine were convicted of organising an unauthorised assembly on August 18, 2019, which called for democracy and greater police accountability.
Former lawmakers Cyd Ho Sau-lan and Lee Cheuk-yan, who are among the nine currently on trial, chanted slogans outside the West Kowloon court buildings on Friday.
Seven defendants who had earlier pleaded not guilty submitted their mitigation on Friday morning.
‘There is no right so precious to the people of Hong Kong as the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly,’ said Ng, who discharged her legal team and gave her statement in person.
She added that she’s prepared to stand with and stand up for the people who ‘in the last resort, had to give collective expression of their anguish and urge the government to respond’.
‘I stand the law’s good servant but the people’s first,’ said Ng, whose submission ended with a round of loud applause in courtroom.
Judge Amanda Woodcock earlier said in her verdict that the march had caused serious traffic disruption and the fact the march was peaceful was no defence.
‘I’m ready for the sentencing and I’m proud that I can walk with the people of HK in this road for democracy… We’ll walk together through the storm even in darkness,’ former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said outside court ahead of the hearing.
Media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been handed 12 months in prison for his role in organising unauthorised assembly during anti-government protests in 2019. Above, Lai pictured in December
Lee and Jimmy Lai had pleaded guilty to taking part in another illegal assembly on August 31, 2019. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and the sentencing will also be handed down on the same afternoon.
The rallies in 2019 often descended into clashes between riot police and a knot of hardcore participants, and posed the most concerted challenge to China’s rule since the former British colony’s 1997 handover.
Since then, authorities have unleashed a broad crackdown with the imposition of a sweeping security law that criminalises much dissent, and passed a radical overhaul of the city’s electoral system.
A timeline of Hong Kong’s anti-government protests
2019
February – Hong Kong’s Security Bureau proposes amendments to extradition laws that would allow extraditions to mainland China and other countries not covered by existing treaties.
March 31 – Thousands take to the streets to protest against the proposed extradition bill.
April 3 – Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s government introduces amendments to the extradition laws that would allow criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.
April 28 – Tens of thousands march on Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to demand the scrapping of the proposed amendments.
May 30 – Concessions to the extradition bill are introduced but critics say they are not enough.
June 6 – More than 3,000 Hong Kong lawyers dressed in black take part in a rare protest march.
June 9 – More than half a million people take to the streets.
June 15 – Lam indefinitely delays extradition law.
July 1 – Protesters storm the Legislative Council on the 22nd anniversary of the handover from British to Chinese rule, destroying pictures and daubing walls with graffiti.
July 9 – Lam says the extradition bill is dead and that government work on it had been a ‘total failure’.
Protesters are pictured waving their phones in a demonstration on August 28, 2019
July 21 – Men in white T-shirts, some armed with poles, storm a train at rural Yuen Long station, attacking passengers and passersby, after several thousand activists surrounded China’s representative office. The pivotal attack triggers a massive backlash against the police, who were accused of being slow to respond.
July 30 – Forty-four activists are charged with rioting, the first time the charge has been used during the protests.
August 9 – China’s aviation regulator demands Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific suspend personnel who have taken part in the protests. The airline suspends a pilot, one of the 44 charged, the next day.
August 14 – Police and protesters clash at Hong Kong’s international airport after flights were disrupted.
August 21 – Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, delays its Hong Kong listing of up to $15 billion.
September 2 – Lam says she has caused ‘unforgivable havoc’ and would quit if she had a choice, according to a recording of remarks to business people.
September 4 – Lam announces the extradition bill will be withdrawn. Critics say it is too little, too late.
September 17 – Lam pledges to hold talks with the community to try to ease tensions.
September 26 – Protesters trap Lam in a stadium for hours after her first ‘open dialogue’.
October 1 – City rocked by the most widespread unrest since the protests began as China’s Communist Party rulers celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. Police shoot an 18-year-old protester in the shoulder.
October 4 – Lam invokes colonial-era emergency powers to ban face masks, sparking violent protests. A police officer shoots a 14-year-old boy in the thigh.
October 16 – Lam abandons her policy speech amid lawmakers’ jeers. Prominent rights activist Jimmy Sham is beaten by four men wielding hammers and knives.
October 23 – Extradition bill is withdrawn.
October 29 – Authorities disqualify pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong from standing in upcoming district elections.
November 2 – Protesters vandalise China’s official Xinhua news agency, smashing doors, setting fires and throwing paint.
November 4 – University student Chow Tsz-lok, 22, falls from the third to the second floor of a parking lot as police disperse protesters.
November 6 – A knife-wielding man attacks pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho.
November 8 – Chow dies, the first student death during the protests.
November 11 – Police fire live rounds at protesters on the eastern side of Hong Kong island, one person wounded.
November 17-29 – Protracted, at-times fiery siege at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as police surround campus after students and activists barricaded themselves inside. More than 1,100 mostly young activists arrested in what was widely seen as the police’s first major success against the movement.
2020
January 1 – A march drawing tens of thousands on New Year’s Day spirals into chaos as police fire several rounds of tear gas and water cannon at crowds, including families, before halting event.
April 17 – Beijing’s top representative office in Hong Kong says it is not bound by a law restricting interference by mainland Chinese bodies, stoking concerns over China’s encroachment.
April 18 – Police arrest 15 activists, including Democratic Party founder Martin Lee, 81, and millionaire publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, 71, in the biggest crackdown on the pro-democracy movement since protests escalated in June.
May 8 – Rival lawmakers scuffle in the legislature over electing the chairman of a key committee.
May 21 – Beijing says it is moving to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong, following the often violent anti-government unrest last year.
May 24 – Police fire tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands as protests over the national security laws pick up with the easing of coronavirus curbs on gathering.
May 27 – Riot police fire pepper pellets as protesters rally in the heart of the business district amid demonstrations over the national security laws and a bill that would criminalise disrespect of China’s national anthem.
May 28 – China’s parliament overwhelmingly approves imposing national security legislation on Hong Kong to tackle secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference.
May 28 – President Donald Trump orders his administration to begin the process of eliminating special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong, but stops short of calling an immediate end to privileges that have helped the territory remain a global financial centre.
Source: Reuters
