About 50 pro-democracy activists accused of breaking the national security law will appear in a Hong Kong court after 15 months of opaque proceedings, some facing life imprisonment, after taking the last step before a trial on Tuesday.
It will be the most important national security case since the entry into force of this drastic law imposed by Beijing on the former British colony in 2020 to put an end to the immense and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations.
A total of 47 known activists are accused of “subversion” for having organized unofficial primaries aimed at nominating opposition candidates for the legislative elections.
Aged 24 to 66, they represent a very broad spectrum of the opposition with former deputies, academics, lawyers, social workers as well as young activists.
They had first appeared in March 2021. The majority of them had been denied bail after four days of a marathon hearing.
Although public, most pretrial proceedings over the past 15 months have been subject to severe disclosure restrictions and the press banned from reporting certain procedural details.
On several occasions, requests for the lifting of these restrictions, made by defendants and journalists, have been rejected.
The families and lawyers of the defendants told AFP that this opacity left them “frustrated and exhausted” and allowed the prosecution to “change the rules of the game”.
Seventeen of the defendants will be sent back to the High Court for trial, Judge Peter Law announced last Wednesday.
Among them are ex-MP Leung Kwok-hung, former journalist Gwyneth Ho and lawyer Lawrence Lau.
The other 29 were returned Monday and Tuesday for trial. An accused is the subject of a new procedure.
Of all the defendants, those who have pleaded not guilty will be tried by the High Court and those who have pleaded guilty will be served their sentence, as per the court order.
More than 180 people have been arrested in the past two years since the security law came into effect – mostly activists, trade unionists and journalists – and 115 have been prosecuted.
So far, three people have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 43 months to nine years. One of them appealed her sentence of 69 months in prison on Tuesday and the court postponed her judgment until early September.
The 47 activists were the largest group tried in a single case under the national security law.