Nearly fifty people, accused of wanting to overthrow the executive, appear from Monday for four months in Hong Kong. This is the largest trial of pro-democracy activists in this special administrative region of China.
In Hong Kong, forty-seven pro-democracy activists are on trial from Monday for violating the drastic national security law. The facts are punishable by life imprisonment, in a case that has become for critics of Beijing the symbol of the criminalization of dissent in Hong Kong.
At the start of the trial, a small group of protesters gathered outside the court, AFP journalists noted, despite the deployment of a large number of police nearby.
Veteran activist Chan Po-Ying, wife of activist Leung Kwok-hung on trial in this trial, joined the protesters in unfurling a banner, which read “Immediately release all political prisoners” and “The repression is shameless “. “This is political persecution,” she lambasted the press.
Another protester was seen raising his fist in solidarity with the defendants.
More than a hundred people lined up outside the courthouse, some overnight, hoping to watch the trial begin. In the courtroom, Leung Kwok-hung again pleaded not guilty. “Resisting tyranny is not a crime,” he said.
The defendants, most of whom have been imprisoned for nearly two years, say they are being prosecuted for their participation in political action.
For human rights defenders and political observers, this trial illustrates the use of the Hong Kong judicial system to crush the little opposition that remains in this city, since the suppression of huge pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
It is the largest court case to date under the national security law enacted in mid-2020 that shattered all dissent in the metropolis, similar to legislation in mainland China.
China says the legislation was necessary to curb political unrest.
“Social Death”
The defendants, including a lawyer and former MPs, face life imprisonment if convicted of “conspiracy to commit an act of subversion”. Sixteen have already pleaded not guilty.
Thirty-four defendants were denied bail. Those released must respect strict conditions, particularly in terms of expression. Measures that the families of the accused describe as “social death”.
All were jointly charged in March 2021 for having organized, a year earlier, an unofficial primary election intended to select opposition candidates for the legislative elections.
Their goal was to secure a majority in the city’s partially elected assembly, in order to veto budgets and potentially force the resignation of then-incumbent pro-Beijing Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.
Prosecutors say it was an attempt to overthrow the government.
“This case involves a group of activists who have conspired together and with others to plan, organize and participate in actions designed to seriously interfere with, disrupt or undermine the government…in an effort to overthrow state power,” the prosecution said in its opening statement.
Despite official warnings, more than 610,000 people voted in the primaries, nearly a seventh of Hong Kong residents of voting age.
The authorities finally gave up the election of the assembly and Beijing established a new political system that strictly controls the candidates for power.
“This is retaliation against all Hong Kong people who have supported the pro-democracy camp,” Eric Lai, a member of the Asian Law Center at Georgetown University, told AFP.
“Beijing will do everything – even arm the laws and the court – to ensure that democratic politics in Hong Kong cannot overstep the lines it has drawn.”
This trial, which represents a major test for Hong Kong’s independence and rule of law, is being held in open court, but without a jury, which constitutes a departure from Hong Kong’s common law tradition.
A few weeks ago, the Chief Justice of Hong Kong, Andrew Cheung, railed against accusations of politicizing the judicial system.
“If, inevitably, the decision of the court can sometimes have a political impact, this does not mean that the court made a political decision”, judge Andrew Cheung.
