International Courant
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s Excessive Court docket on Monday upheld the convictions of seven of Hong Kong’s most outstanding pro-democracy activists for his or her roles in one of many largest anti-government protests in 2019.
Jimmy Laifounding father of the now defunct Apple Day by day newspaper; Martin Leethe founding father of town’s Democratic Social gathering; and 5 former pro-democracy lawmakers had been discovered responsible in 2021 for organizing and taking part in an unauthorized gathering.
Their convictions had been a blow to town’s flagging pro-democracy motion amid a political crackdown on dissent following the protests.
Final yr the activists had been partially gained their enchantment in a decrease court docket, the place their convictions had been overturned on the cost of organizing an unauthorized meeting. However their convictions for taking part within the meeting had been upheld, and so they continued their authorized battle within the metropolis’s highest court docket.
On Monday, Court docket of Attraction judges unanimously dominated that their enchantment towards the remaining convictions shouldn’t be granted.
The defendants beforehand argued that the trial decide failed to hold out an “operational proportionality” evaluation when sentencing them, citing two non-binding UK Supreme Court docket selections. The defence additionally argued that the decide ought to have taken into consideration that the procession didn’t change into violent.
However Chief Justice Andrew Cheung and Justice Roberto Ribeiro stated of their written judgment that the 2 British instances shouldn’t be heard within the metropolis’s courts as a result of the frameworks for human rights points differ within the two jurisdictions.
They dominated that the defendants’ proposal was “untenable” and “opposite to all established rules relevant to constitutional challenges in Hong Kong.”
“A separate proportionality investigation into arrest, prosecution, conviction and punishment is inappropriate and pointless,” they wrote.
After the court docket delivered its verdict, lawyer Margaret Ng, one of many defendants, declined to remark till the decision was learn out.
“We wish to take this chance to thank our authorized groups, and all of the individuals who have all the time supported us,” she stated.
The convictions had been linked to their involvement in an August 2019 rally that drew an estimated 1.7 million folks to the streets of Hong Kong to name for better police accountability and democracy. The march was comparatively peaceable in comparison with different protests that yr, which regularly descended into violent clashes between police and demonstrators.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997. Its mini-constitution, the Fundamental Regulation, ensures the folks freedom of meeting.
In sentencing the seven activists in 2021, the district court docket decide dominated that the appropriate to such freedom shouldn’t be absolute and is topic to limitations established by the structure. She ordered Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho to to be imprisoned between eight and 18 months. Martin Lee, Ng and Albert Ho got suspended jail sentences.
When the appeals court docket partially quashed their convictions in 2023, it quashed a number of the sentences for the 4 who got jail sentences primarily based on their legal information. The choice was made after that they had already served their sentences.
Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung and Albert Ho remained in custody, having additionally been prosecuted or convicted below a nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijingwhich critics stated had all however erased public dissent. Lai additionally served a jail sentence for a separate fraud case.
The governments of Beijing and Hong Kong stated the safety regulation was wanted to revive stability to town after the protests.
The motion 5 years in the past was town’s most concerted problem to the Hong Kong authorities because the handover in 1997. It was met with mass arrests and banishments of pro-democracy activists, the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of the safety regulation.
Hong Kong Excessive Court docket upholds convictions of seven outstanding pro-democracy activists after 2019 protests
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