45 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are sentenced to jail in city’s biggest national security trial

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court sentenced dozens of leading pro-democracy figures to up to 10 years in prison Tuesday in the single largest trial under a national security law that critics say has been used to all but eliminate political dissent in the Chinese territory.

Benny Tai, 60, a former law professor at the University of Hong Kong who co-organized an unofficial primary election at the center of the case, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the longest of the 45 sentences. The others ranged from four years and two months to seven years and nine months.

The defendants had faced up to life imprisonment under the national security law, which Beijing imposed in 2020 in response to pro-democracy demonstrations that roiled Hong Kong for months the previous year.

Tai was among 47 opposition politicians, academics, activists and others charged in 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion, one of four crimes the law established. Two of the defendants were acquitted in May.

They were charged in connection with their roles in an unofficial primary election held in July 2020, weeks after the national security law went into effect. The primary, which aimed to boost democrats’ chances of winning a majority in an upcoming election for the Hong Kong legislature, drew more than 600,000 voters in the city of 7.5 million.

Many of the candidates in the primary election had vowed to repeatedly veto the government’s proposed budget to force the resignation of Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s top leader at the time. In their earlier verdict, the three High Court judges — who were handpicked by the Hong Kong government to oversee the trial — said the plan could have created a constitutional crisis, and rejected the defendants’ argument that it was within the bounds of Hong Kong law.

Authorities had warned that the primary risked violating the national security law, which Hong Kong and Chinese officials say was necessary to restore stability after the sometimes-violent protests.

Critics say the law has instead driven a crackdown on expression in the former British colony, which was promised its civil liberties would be preserved for 50 years when it returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. In March, Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature also enacted local national security legislation.

The U.S. and other Western governments have criticized the so-called Hong Kong 47 trial as politically motivated and called for the defendants’ immediate release. Most of the defendants, who are in their 20s to their 60s, have been held without bail since their arrests in early 2021.

Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday that the “harsh sentences” reflected “just how fast Hong Kong’s civil liberties and judicial independence have nosedived” since the national security law was imposed four years ago.

“Running in an election and trying to win it is now a crime that can lead to a decade in prison in Hong Kong,” she said in a statement.

The Hong Kong government rejects the idea that judicial independence is under threat, saying that cases are handled in accordance with the law and that individual rights are protected under Hong Kong’s mini-constitution and Bill of Rights.

Of the 47 defendants, 31 — including Tai — pleaded guilty in the hope of lesser sentencing. Fourteen others were convicted in May, while the remaining two were acquitted.

Apart from Tai, three other pro-democracy politicians — Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu and Ben Chung — were also considered primary organizers and “principal offenders.” All three testified for the prosecution, and they received sentences of six years and one month to seven years.

Others including Joshua Wong, who gained global prominence as a leader of pro-democracy protests in 2014, were considered “active participants” and mostly received shorter sentences.

John Burns, an emeritus professor at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in the city’s politics and governance, said the trial was part of authorities’ effort to eliminate opposition.

Among the 47 are “second-tier pan-democrats” who were previously active members of the Hong Kong legislature, Burns said. In the eyes of authorities, he said, the “sole first tier” is billionaire media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the founder of now-defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, who is also charged under the national security law and is taking the stand for the first time Wednesday as defense arguments begin almost a year into his trial.

Given that the pan-democratic opposition regularly drew support from 40% to 60% of voters before electoral reforms in 2021 restricted candidacy to “patriots only,” the trial also aims to “re-educate” Hong Kong people about how they should act on their political beliefs rather than change the way they think about politics, Burns said.

“Still, we see that some people are not getting the message, apparently,” he said, noting a series of recent arrests under the local national security law, known as Article 23.

Despite growing influence from Beijing, more than 80% of adults in Hong Kong support a democratic system in which two or more political parties compete in elections, according to a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center.

Hundreds of people, some of them with portable chairs, lined up hours and even days in advance to secure a spot in the courtroom for the activists’ sentencing. On Tuesday morning, more people gathered outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court amid light rain and wind.

Margaret Chen, a 59-year-old retiree who said she had attended most of the trial since it began in February 2023, said she had been in line since midday Sunday with her sleeping bag and other camping gear.

The trial is “too absurd” and “unjust,” Chen said, adding that democracy had died in Hong Kong and people are too afraid to speak out.

“If the primary election is illegal, then aren’t the hundreds of thousands of people who voted also breaking the law? Why haven’t they prosecuted us yet?” she said.

Carson Tsang, 21, a law student, said the trial was a “historical moment” for Hong Kong’s common law system.

“The final result of the trial is not the most important thing,” Tsang said. “As long as we have a group of people who continue to care about Hong Kong and the democrats, it’s more than enough.”