A veteran democracy advocate in Hong Kong has described his legal system as an instrument of political suppression, after he and eight other well-known figures went to trial in one of the most important court cases related to the protest movement. paralyze the city for longer. of a year.
“It is the justice department, the police department and the Hong Kong government that should be prosecuted because they have deprived us of our constitutional rights,” Lee Cheuk-yan said after the day’s proceedings. “This year is the year of the ox, so we should be stubborn like an ox.”
The group is accused of organizing and participating in an unauthorized assembly in the first months of the massive Hong Kong protests, which only ended when the Covid-19 explosion and brutal repression in Beijing combined to push the protesters. on the streets. Both charges carry sentences of up to five years in prison.
Other defendants include Martin Lee, considered the father of the democratic movement in Hong Kong, media mogul Jimmy Lai and Margaret Ng, a highly respected former lawmaker. This is the first time Martin Lee, 82, and Ng, 73, have been tried. Seven of the defendants have pleaded guilty to all charges.
When the proceedings began in West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, one defendant, the summoned convener of the Civil Human Rights Front, Au Nok-hin, pleaded guilty to both charges and was convicted, according to local media. . Former lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung pleaded guilty to joining the illegal assembly and was also convicted.
The couple’s cases have been postponed to mitigate them next month.
Lee Cheuk-yan and veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung, known as Long Hair, shouted “object of political prosecution!” while introducing their pleadings not guilty.
In their opening statement, prosecutors accused the group of defying police instructions and encouraging crowds to march on the main island of Hong Kong, causing traffic disruption.
Lawyers for Martin Lee and another defendant, Albert Ho, told the court they would file an expert report on issues related to police operations, RTHK reported. The Apple Daily said defense teams also challenged the constitutionality of the police force’s ability to ban assemblies, especially when leading protests.
On Tuesday morning, out of court, Lee Cheuk-yan told local media that the group was fighting for the right to assembly. Prior to the trial, supporters and several of the defendants gathered outside the courthouse. A banner read: “Peaceful gathering is not a crime; shame on political prosecution “.
The allegations relate to a rally on August 18, 2019, when an estimated 1.7 million people (or more than one in five Hong Kongers) marched peacefully defying police orders and torrential rains. Its organizers, the Civil Rights Human Front, had been given permission to hold a rally in Victoria Park, but not to march through the streets. The huge crowd filled the park and spilled onto the streets, taking the main roads to walk to government offices a few miles away, protesting the recent acts of police violence. In contrast to many protests before and after that day, it remained peaceful.
Eight months later, police arrested 15 people accused of organizing the August 18 rally and two more protests, which sparked an international reprimand, including a UN warning. The government said in response that it always respected and protected human rights and freedoms, but “these rights are not absolute” and should not unacceptably affect the enjoyment by others of their rights and freedoms.
Lee Cheuk-yan faces three other trials this year on separate but similar charges, for holding unauthorized assemblies, including a 2020 vigil for the Tiananmen Square massacre. “I think it’s inevitable to go to jail,” he said. “I think I’ll be lucky to win one, but the worst case scenario is that I’ll lose all four.”
Tuesday’s trial charges are unrelated to national security, although at least one of the defendants, Lai, will face national security charges later and is in pretrial detention. The case does not test the new laws introduced by Beijing with the blessing of the Hong Kong government to crush dissent and opposition, but it has been controversial.
Benjamin Yu is prosecuting the group after British QC David Perry bowed to international outrage and withdrew last month.
Speaking after the arrest of the 15 last year, Martin Lee, reflecting on the thousands of people who had been detained for their participation in protests, said he was “proud and relieved to be listed as a defendant, after to see so many brilliant young people arrested. “
Lee Cheuk-yan said at the time authorities were using the pandemic as a “golden opportunity” to round up opposition figures and called the arrests “revenge and retaliation”.
“If we are guilty of the [participation] accusations, then 1.7 million people should be guilty of participating in an unauthorized assembly, ”he said. “But that’s absurd … Do you want to prosecute 1.7 million people?”