A Hong Kong court will this week sentence 45 democratic campaigners in a major national security trial, with potentially heavy jail terms poised to further damage the financial hub’s once lively pro-democracy movement, critics say.
In May, 14 of the 47 democrats were found guilty of the charge of conspiracy to commit subversion, and two were acquitted. Earlier, 31 had pleaded guilty, hoping for reduced sentences.
The U.S. has described the trial and its guilty verdicts as “politically motivated”, opens new tab, while demanding the defendants be released.
Hong Kong authorities say the legal process has been impartial, while condemning critical comments from Western democracies as baseless and “malicious smearing”.
On Tuesday, three national security judges hand-picked by the government for this trial will conclude the legal saga that began with the democrats’ arrests in January 2021. Jail terms are expected to range from several years for participants to possible life imprisonment for principal offenders.
The charges of conspiracy to commit subversion followed unofficial primary elections held in July 2020 to maximise the democrats’ chances of winning a majority in an upcoming legislative council election.
The convictions have silenced some of the most popular and determined pro-democratic voices, according to an examination of social media posts and interviews with lawyers and relatives of half a dozen defendants.
“This case has swept away the entire pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong,” said Emilia Wong, the girlfriend of one of the defendants, Ventus Lau.
Prior to the trial, the democrats had existed in the space promised when Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula granting the city wide-ranging freedoms denied to those in mainland China.
But critics say this model suffered with China’s imposition of a national security law in July 2020 after pro-democracy protests swept the city a year earlier.