November 20, 2024: A court in Hong Kong handed lengthy prison terms to 45 democracy leaders in a mass trial and sentencing on November 19, 2024. The defendants received prison sentences ranging from 50 months to 10 years in the largest national security trial to date under the draconian National Security Law (NSL) imposed by Beijing in 2020 after the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The group, which originally had 47 defendants, and their trial is now known widely as the “Hong Kong 47” were arrested in January 2021 and charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” for their roles in organising unofficial primary elections to choose pro-democracy legislative candidates. Of the 47, 31 had pleaded guilty, and two were acquitted at trial.
The 45 people sentenced included some of the most prominent Hong Kong democracy leaders. Benny Tai, who was labeled by the judges as the “mastermind” and “principal offender,” received the longest prison term of 10 years. Jason Wong received 4 years and 8 months. Gwyneth Ho, who pleaded not guilty, received 7 years. Leung Kwok-hung got 6 years and 9 months; and Claudia Mo, a former journalist-turned-legislator, was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months. Owen Chow received 7 years and 9 months. Gordon Ng, an Australian-Hong Kong dual national, was sentenced to seven years and three months.
Shortly after the sentencing, Gwyneth Ho issued a statement on social media, saying she had been prosecuted for participating in “the last free and fair election in Hong Kong”. She urged supporters to “push back against the corruption of power, restore faith in democratic values through action. Give authoritarian dictators one less example of failed democracy to justify their rule, and give freedom fighters around the world one more inspiration to continue the struggle with better alternatives. Fight on the ground most familiar and dear to you. Prove to the world at every possible moment, no matter how small, that democracy is worth fighting for.”
The sentencing was described by a New York Times journalist as “the final step in a crackdown that cut the heart out of the city’s democracy movement, turning its leaders into a generation of political prisoners.”
The Hong Kong government’s action was condemned by foreign governments and others. The US government called on authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong to “cease politically motivated prosecutions of Hong Kong citizens and to immediately release all political prisoners and individuals jailed for their peaceful advocacy for rights and freedoms.” Australia called for China to “cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society” in Hong Kong and repeal the national security law.
“The cruel sentences for dozens of prominent democracy activists show just how fast Hong Kong’s civil liberties and the rule of law have nosedived in the four years since the Chinese government imposed the draconian National Security Law on the city” said Human Rights Watch. It said “the Chinese and Hong Kong governments’ crackdown on the democracy movement violates obligations under international human rights law to protect the peaceful exercise of fundamental rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is incorporated into Hong Kong’s legal framework via the Basic Law and the Bill of Rights Ordinance.”
The Hong Kong Democracy Council in its statement said “the sentencing of the 45 pro-democracy leaders in the weaponized judicial court today is an attack on the essence of Hong Kong — one that yearns for freedom, democracy, and the right to political expression. We condemn the Hong Kong government for launching an all-out assault – an accumulated total of 2,946 months behind bars for 45 candidates – against Hong Kong’s decades of pro-democracy progress.”
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