Veteran HK pro-dems face jail for huge rally

HONG KONG: Nine veteran Hong Kong activists face jail after they were convicted Thursday for their roles in organising one of the biggest democracy protests to engulf the city in 2019.

The defendants included some of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy campaigners, many of whom are non-violence advocates who have spent decades campaigning in vain for universal suffrage.

They are the latest group of democracy figures to be prosecuted as China oversees a sweeping crackdown on dissent following seven straight months of democracy protests in the financial hub.

Among them are Martin Lee, an 82-year-old barrister who was once chosen by Beijing to help write Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, and Margaret Ng, a 73-year-old barrister and former opposition lawmaker.

Protesters gathering for a rally in Victoria Park in Hong Kong in August of 2019.

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, currently in custody after his arrest under Beijing’s new national security law, was among those convicted.

Leung Kwok-hung, an opposition politician known by his sobriquet “Long Hair” who has also been detained on national security charges, was also sent down.

Others are leading members of the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), the coalition that organised a series of huge rallies throughout 2019.

Some struck a defiant tone outside court on Thursday morning ahead of the verdict, holding banners that read “protest political suppression”. 

“We are very proud even if we have to go to jail for it,” Lee Cheuk-yan, a former legislator and labour leader told reporters. “We will still march on no matter what lies in the future.”

Seven were found guilty of organising and knowingly participating in an unauthorised assembly. Two others had previously pleaded guilty. 

They face up to five years in jail. 

The group was prosecuted for organising an unauthorised assembly on August 18, 2019 — one of the biggest in Hong Kong that year as people took to the streets calling for democracy and greater police accountability.

Organisers claimed 1.7 million people turned out—almost one in four Hong Kong residents—though that number was difficult to independently verify.

It was easily one of the biggest rallies that year, with dense crowds marching peacefully for hours under a sea of umbrellas and thundery skies.

Protests in Hong Kong can only go ahead with the permission of authorities and rights groups have long criticised the use of unauthorised assembly prosecutions.

British lawyer David Perry, hired by the Hong Kong government to be the lead prosecutor, stepped down following withering criticism from both the UK government and British legal bodies over his decision to take the job.

Prosecutors accused the group of defying police instructions that day and encouraging crowds to march across Hong Kong’s main island, bringing traffic disruption.

In her verdict, district Judge AJ Woodcock indicated that she was inclined to go for a maximum jail sentence and said the fact the march was peaceful was no defence. 

“It cannot be right for an offender to argue that although his act was unauthorised... but because it was ultimately peaceful and there was no violence he should not be arrested, prosecuted or convicted,” she wrote. 

The group will be sentenced on 16 April and those not already detained on separate charges were granted bail on condition they surrender their passports and remain in Hong Kong.

Since 2019, protests have been all but outlawed with authorities either refusing permission on security grounds or because of the pandemic.