Global Courant 2023-05-29 12:56:00
HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court on Monday began the trial of 13 people over the 2019 storming and looting of the city’s legislature, which posed an unprecedented challenge to the Beijing-backed government.
It was the most violent episode in the early stages of the huge pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong that year, with millions of protesters and weeks of sit-ins.
Hundreds of protesters broke into the legislature on the night of July 1, 2019 — the 22nd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China — by smashing windows and spray-painting graffiti.
The 13 defendants on trial Monday over the episode were charged with rioting, a crime that carries up to 10 years in prison.
Seven pleaded guilty to that charge when proceedings began Monday in a district court in Hong Kong, and the prosecution stayed the additional charges against them.
“I have never regretted my fight for freedom, justice and democracy… my thoughts will remain free while in prison,” Ms Althea Suen, who pleaded guilty, said in a Facebook post posted when the process started.
The six who have not entered a guilty plea to riot face additional charges of unlawful access to the legislature and “criminal damage”, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Their trial is expected to take 44 days.
More than 10,000 people were arrested as authorities tried to crush the 2019 protest movement, which has been one of the biggest challenges Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed government has faced since the handover in 1997.
In 2020, Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, which banned most dissent and cracked down on the democracy movement.
Nearly 2,900 people have been prosecuted on charges related to the protests. AFP
