Hong Kong, China:
Nine veteran Hong Kong activists face jail just after they had been convicted Thursday for their roles in organising one of the largest democracy protests to engulf the city in 2019.
The defendants incorporated some of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy campaigners, quite a few of whom are non-violence advocates who have spent decades campaigning in vain for universal suffrage.
They are the newest group of democracy figures to be prosecuted as China oversees a sweeping crackdown on dissent following seven straight months of democracy protests in the economic hub.
Among them are Martin Lee, an 82-year-old barrister who was when selected by Beijing to enable create Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, and Margaret Ng, a 73-year-old barrister and former opposition lawmaker.
Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, at the moment in custody just after his arrest beneath Beijing’s new national safety law, was amongst these convicted.
Leung Kwok-hung, an opposition politician identified by his sobriquet “Long Hair” who has also been detained on national safety charges, was also sent down.
Others are top members of the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), the coalition that organised a series of large rallies all through 2019.
Some struck a defiant tone outdoors court on Thursday morning ahead of the verdict, holding banners that study “protest political suppression”.
“We are very proud even if we have to go to jail for it,” Lee Cheuk-yan, a former legislator and labour leader told reporters. “We will still march on no matter what lies in the future.”
Seven had been discovered guilty of organising and knowingly participating in an unauthorised assembly. Two other individuals had previously pleaded guilty.
They face up to 5 years in jail.
Massive rally
The group was prosecuted for organising an unauthorised assembly on August 18, 2019 — one of the largest in Hong Kong that year as individuals took to the streets calling for democracy and higher police accountability.
Organisers claimed 1.7 million individuals turned out — nearly one in 4 Hong Kong residents — although that quantity was tough to independently confirm.
It was simply one of the largest rallies that year, with dense crowds marching peacefully for hours beneath a sea of umbrellas and thundery skies.
Protests in Hong Kong can only go ahead with the permission of authorities and rights groups have lengthy criticised the use of unauthorised assembly prosecutions.
British lawyer David Perry, hired by the Hong Kong government to be the lead prosecutor, stepped down following withering criticism from each the UK government and British legal bodies more than his selection to take the job.
Prosecutors accused the group of defying police directions that day and encouraging crowds to march across Hong Kong’s primary island, bringing site visitors disruption.
In her verdict, district Judge AJ Woodcock indicated that she was inclined to go for a maximum jail sentence and mentioned the reality the march was peaceful was no defence.
“It cannot be right for an offender to argue that although his act was unauthorised… but because it was ultimately peaceful and there was no violence he should not be arrested, prosecuted or convicted,” she wrote.
The group will be sentenced on 16 April and these not currently detained on separate charges had been granted bail on situation they surrender their passports and stay in Hong Kong.
Since 2019, protests have been all but outlawed with authorities either refusing permission on safety grounds or since of the pandemic.
The rallies typically descended into clashes amongst riot police and a knot of hardcore participants, and posed the most concerted challenge to China’s rule considering that the former British colony’s 1997 handover.
The movement at some point fizzled out beneath the combined weight of exhaustion, some 10,000 arrests and the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities have considering that unleashed a broad crackdown and Beijing has imposed a new safety law which criminalises considerably dissent.
Earlier this week Chinese leaders also passed a new law governing Hong Kong’s currently restricted neighborhood elections.
The quantity of straight elected seats for the 90-seat legislature was slashed to much less than a quarter whilst any person wanting to stand for public workplace will have to be vetted by national safety police and officials for their “patriotism”.
China and Hong Kong’s leaders say the moves are required to restore stability to the finance hub.
Critics counter that Beijing has shredded the liberties and autonomy it promised Hong Kong could preserve just after the handover.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)