(Hong Kong) Seven of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists lost their latest bid Monday to overturn their convictions at the city’s highest court for their roles in one of the largest anti-government protests of 2019.
Jimmy Lai, founder of the shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, Martin Lee, founding chairman of the city’s Democratic Party, and five former pro-democracy lawmakers were convicted in 2021 of organizing and participating in an unauthorized rally.
Their convictions dealt a blow to the city’s flagging pro-democracy movement as a political crackdown on dissent continues following the protests.
Last year, the activists partially won their appeal in a lower court, with their convictions for organizing an unauthorized gathering overturned. But their convictions for participating in the assembly were upheld, meaning they continued their legal battle in the city’s highest court.
On Monday, Supreme Court of Appeal judges dismissed their appeal over the remaining convictions.
The convictions were related to their participation in a rally in August 2019 that drew about 1.7 million people to the streets of Hong Kong to demand greater police accountability and democracy. The march was relatively peaceful compared to other protests that often turned violent between police and protesters that year.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China in 1997. Its Basic Law guarantees its people freedom of assembly.
When sentencing the seven activists in 2021, a district court judge ruled that the right to freedom was not absolute and was subject to restrictions deemed constitutional. She ordered Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho to be jailed for between eight and 18 months. Martin Lee, Margaret Ng and Albert Ho received suspended prison sentences.
When the appeals court ruled on their convictions in 2023, it overturned part of the sentences handed down to the four people who had been sentenced to prison. The decision was made after they had already served their sentences.
Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung and Albert Ho remained in detention because they were also being prosecuted or convicted under a national security law imposed by Beijing that critics say has all but crushed public dissent.
Lai was also serving a prison sentence for another fraud case.
The governments of Beijing and Hong Kong have said the security law is necessary to bring stability to the city after the protests.
The movement five years ago was the city’s most concerted challenge to the Hong Kong government since the 1997 handover. It faded with mass arrests and exiles of democracy activists, the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of the security law.