the Guardian By Guardian staff
Sixteen of 47 pro-democracy campaigners had denied charges of ‘conspiracy to subvert state power’ in national security case.
Fourteen people have been found guilty in Hong Kong’s largest national security trial, the prosecution of the “Hong Kong 47” pro-democracy campaigners, in a ruling that was immediately condemned by rights groups.
In a verdict delivered on Thursday, the panel of judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s government found 14 people had committed the national security offence of “conspiracy to subvert state power” by holding unofficial election primaries in 2020. The convicted included one organiser and 13 candidates, almost all of them former politicians.
The 10-month trial finished in December, more than 1,000 days after the cohort had first been arrested. Among the guilty are former lawmakers and activists including the politician Helena Wong, the veteran campaigner Leung “Long Hair” Kwok-hung, the journalist Gwyneth Ho, and the dual Hong Kong-Australian national Gordon Ng.
Two defendants, the former district councillor Laurence Lau Wai-chung and Lee Yue-shun, a former social worker, were acquitted of the charge. The pair had run as candidates in the primaries and are the first acquittals to be granted after a prosecution under the 2020 national security law (NSL). However, the justice secretary’s legal team said he would appeal against the acquittals. The judges agreed to extend most of the pair’s stringent bail conditions in the meantime.
The 16 people were the only ones to plead not guilty from the group of 47 charged in early 2021 after mass dawn raids on their homes and offices by national security police. Most of the group have been in jail ever since. The 31 who pleaded guilty, including four who testified for the prosecution, are still awaiting the outcomes of their cases. The judges had decided to complete the trial of the others before moving on to sentencing.
The 45 convicted campaigners face sentences of up to life in prison.
On Thursday morning all 16 defendants sat in the docks behind a glass panel, as the three-judge panel announced the verdict.
The judgment, published online, said the cohort’s plan to gain a majority in Hong Kong’s legislative council – in order to block budgetary bills and force the resignation of the chief executive if she didn’t agree to the pro-democracy movement’s demands – was a violation of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
Any act that would “seriously interfere in, disrupt or undermine the performance duties and functions of the government was clearly an act which would endanger national security in Hong Kong”, it said.
It also set a significant precedent in finding that non-violent acts, like the primaries, could be considered subversion under the wording of the NSL…
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