Key Factors
- These on trial embody authorized scholar Benny Tai, former lawmakers Claudia Mo and democracy activist Joshua Wong.
- The 47 have been charged en masse below the nationwide safety regulation that China imposed in 2020.
- Sixteen of the 47 have pleaded not responsible.
The trial of 47 of Hong Kong’s most outstanding pro-democracy figures begins on Monday, within the largest prosecution below a nationwide safety regulation that has crushed dissent within the metropolis.
The proceedings are anticipated to final greater than 4 months, and the defendants resist life imprisonment if convicted.
These on trial symbolize a cross-section of Hong Kong’s opposition — together with authorized scholar Benny Tai, former lawmakers Claudia Mo, Au Nok-hin and Leung Kwok-hung, and democracy activists Joshua Wong and Lester Shum.
Activists (Joshua Wong (proper), Ivan Lam (centre) and Agnes Chow (left) arrive at a courtroom in Hong Kong, November 2020. Supply: AP / Vincent Yu
They’re charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” for organising an unofficial main election.
Based on authorities, they have been attempting to topple Hong Kong’s authorities, whereas the defendants say they’re being prosecuted for practising regular opposition politics.
Their said goal was to win a majority within the metropolis’s partially elected legislature, which might permit them to veto budgets and probably pressure the resignation of Hong Kong’s chief.
That vote was finally scrapped and Beijing put in a brand new political system that strictly vets who can stand for workplace.
The 47 have been charged en masse below the nationwide safety regulation that China imposed in 2020, after big and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
Beijing says the regulation was wanted to curb unrest, however critics say the crackdown on the opposition has eviscerated town’s autonomy and political freedoms.
Honest or farce?
Dennis Kwok, a former opposition lawmaker who now lives in the USA, described the trial as “a whole farce”.
“Subversion is against the law that used to require somebody who threatened to make use of violence… to overturn the regime,” Kwok advised AFP.
“It would not embody individuals who merely run for workplace and pledge to make use of their public workplace to pressure the federal government to reply to the calls for of the individuals they symbolize.”
Prosecutors and authorities supporters see the unofficial main in a different way.
“I might assume in case your intent is to deliver down the federal government, then that have to be illegal,” mentioned Ronny Tong, a veteran lawyer.
A protester reacts as she is tackled by riot police throughout a large demonstration exterior the Legislative Council in Hong Kong in 2019. Supply: AP / Kin Cheung / AP
A metropolis remodeled
Whereas Hong Kong has by no means been a democracy, it loved much more freedoms than mainland China.
The nationwide safety regulation has remodeled town’s political panorama in addition to its frequent regulation authorized traditions, refashioning Hong Kong’s courts to extra carefully resemble the mainland’s.
The regulation additionally empowered China’s safety equipment to function overtly within the metropolis.
Judges who sit on nationwide safety instances are handpicked by town’s chief and there has not but been a trial in entrance of a jury.
Many of the defendants on this case — 34 out of 47 — have been jailed for nearly two years. The few granted bail must abide by strict situations, together with speech restrictions.
Authorized and political analysts are watching the trial carefully.
Eric Lai, at Georgetown College’s Middle for Asian Regulation, mentioned Hong Kongers can be being attentive to “how the prosecution defines an odd civil society occasion as a felony act”.
Sixteen of the 47 have pleaded not responsible.
Not less than three will testify towards their friends as prosecution witnesses, the courtroom has been advised.