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Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal yesterday confirmed the convictions of seven of the semi-autonomous Chinese region’s most prominent democracy advocates for taking part in one of 2019’s largest anti-government protests.
In a ruling co-written by Portuguese-born judge Roberto Ribeiro, Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal rejected the last appeal attempt by the seven defendants’ defence.
Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, Martin Lee, chairman and founder of the Democratic Party, and five former legislators including lawyer Margaret Ng were initially convicted in 2021 of organizing and participating in the demonstrations.
Jimmy Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho were initially sentenced to between eight and 18 months in prison. Martin Lee, an octogenarian known as the “father of democracy” in Hong Kong, Margaret Ng and Albert Ho were given suspended sentences.
In August 2023, appeals court judges unanimously overturned the conviction related to organizing the demonstrations, but upheld the conviction for participating in the demonstrations.
The seven activists appealed, arguing that the sentence was disproportionate to the crimes allegedly committed and that the charge represented an excessive restriction on freedom of expression and assembly. The defendants also stressed that the August 2019 march was relatively peaceful.
The price to pay
The charges followed demonstrations in August 2019, when about 1.7 million people took to the streets of Hong Kong, a city of about 7 million residents, to demand greater democracy and accountability for the police.
After the court’s decision, Margaret Wu declined to comment until the verdict was read. “We just want to take this opportunity to thank our legal team and everyone who has been supporting us,” he told reporters.
All those convicted have served their sentences under the process. But Jimmy Lai, Leung Chun-ying, Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan remain in detention because they are also the subject of separate charges under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 following mass protests.
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