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.
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.
People started waiting in line for tickets to the courtroom public gallery over the weekend. By Tuesday morning, the queue, cordoned off by orange tape, snaked around the court building as hundreds of police officers stood on standby. Some of the people in line had stools and camping chairs, braving the rain and cooler temperatures with a late-in-the-season T1 typhoon warning in effect.
Among those approached by HKFP reporters, around one in five agreed to be interviewed. Some declined politely while others turned away when asked.
Ex-district councillor Lee Yue-shun, who was found not guilty of the subversion charge in May, told HKFP he had arrived at around 5 am to queue for a seat. He described the landmark case as having a “profound impact.”
“The court has its decision, but how the public makes sense of the case is very important to the development of society,” he said.
A retiree in his 60s told HKFP he had been waiting in line since 6pm yesterday. He said he had come to support the defendants, some of whom he said he knew from his decade of involvement in social movements. The man, who asked to be called Wed, joked that he had been “incited” by professor Benny Tai.
“I came to watch the trial, so of course I am here for the sentencing too,” he said.
Wed said that having retired around five years ago, he had spare time on his hands and spent some of it with the defendants’ families. Many are still in Hong Kong, he said. “I just try to have dim sum with them when I’m free, to keep them company,” Wed added.
Also in the queue was League of Social Democrats member Tsang Kin-shing, who had joined the line at 8.30 pm on Monday. Tsang said the case should be heard in the Hong Kong Stadium or the Hong Kong Coliseum, so that “more people could hear the case,” he said.
“What I want the most is for everyone to be released,” he told HKFP in Cantonese.
Tsang was among several activists to be searched by police outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building. Lui Yuk-lin and Raphael Wong were also searched. None were arrested.
Wong said regardless of the sentencing, many of the 45 figures had already been detained for more than three years and years months. “It is a heavy punishment for those who advocated for peaceful reforms,” he told HKFP in Cantonese.
A long-time colleague of one of the defendants, Leung Kwok-hung, Wong said Leung had recently undergone a surgery while in custody, which took a toll on his spirit. “But overall he is resilient. He does not regret what he has done,” Wong said.
More than 40 journalists, some with tripods and camera gear, were crammed inside two designated press areas outside the court ahead of the sentencing hearing.
Unofficial primary election
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.
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.”
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.
The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the United Nations and NGOs.
Additional reporting: Hillary Leung and Hans Tse
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