Media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, leaves the final court of appeal with a prison van in Hong Kong, China, on February 9, 2021. REUTERS / Tyrone Siu
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai and nine other pro-democracy activists are due to be convicted on Friday after being found guilty of participating in unauthorized assemblies during the 2019 anti-government protests.
It would be the first time that Lai, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent democratic activists, who has been in jail since December after refusing bail in an independent national security process, will receive a sentence.
About 100 people, including foreign diplomats, lined up outside the courtroom early Friday to get a seat for the hearing.
Lai was found guilty in two separate trials in early April by illegal assemblies on August 18 and August 31, 2019, respectively. The maximum possible punishment is five years in prison.
His repeated arrests have drawn criticism from Western governments and international rights groups, who have raised concerns about diminished freedoms at the global financial center, including freedom of expression and assembly.
In the Aug. 18 case, District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock found him guilty along with Martin Lee, who helped launch the city’s largest opposition Democratic Party in the 1990s. and that he is often called the “father of democracy” of the former British colony.
When he entered court Friday, Lee said, “I feel completely relaxed, I’m ready to face my sentence.”
Other defendants, also found guilty, were prominent lawyer Margaret Ng and veteran Democrats Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, Leung Kwok-hung, Cyd Ho, Au Nok-hin and Leung Yiu-chung. The latter two had pleaded guilty.
In his mitigation speech, Ng said the law should not only be defended in the courts or the legislature, but also in the streets.
“When people ultimately had to give collective expression to their anguish and urge the government to respond, protected only by their expectation that the government would respect their rights, I must be prepared to be with them, stand by them and defend them, ”he said.
In the second trial, the same judge found Lai and Lee Cheuk-yan guilty along with Yeung Sum. The August 31 clashes were among the worst in Hong Kong, with police firing tear gas and water cannons at pro-democracy protesters who dropped petrol bombs.
All three had pleaded guilty.
Lee Cheuk-yan posted on Thursday afternoon on Facebook that he hoped to go to jail, but that his mind was “free like the ocean and the sky.”
The 2019 pro-democracy protests were fueled by Beijing’s strong pressure on the far-reaching freedoms promised in Hong Kong after its return to Chinese rule in 1997, and plunged the semi-autonomous city into its biggest crisis. from the transfer.
Since then, Beijing has consolidated its authoritarian control over Hong Kong by imposing a radical national security law, punishing anything it considers secession, subversion, terrorism, or collusion with foreign forces imprisoned for life.
Proponents of the law say it has restored stability.
Lai, founder of the tabloid Apple Daily, has been a frequent visitor to Washington, meeting with officials such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to support support for Hong Kong’s democracy, prompting Beijing to label him of “traitor.”
Lai is scheduled for two more court mentions on Friday, in the ongoing trial where he is accused of colluding with a foreign country and a fraud case related to the lease of the building that houses Apple Daily.
Earlier this week, the tabloid published a handwritten letter that Lai sent to his colleagues from prison, saying, “As journalists, we must seek justice. As long as we are not blinded by unjust temptations. , as long as we don’t let the evil open up to us, we are fulfilling our responsibility. “
He wrote, “It’s time we got high.”
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