Hong Kong activists get 10 years prison in biggest national security case

Dozens of activists sentenced to prison in Hong Kong's national security case under Beijing's law, crushing pro-democracy movement.

Dozens of prominent activists were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on Tuesday (November 19, 2024) in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case under a sweeping law imposed by Beijing that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

The defendants were prosecuted in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election under the 2020 national security law. They were accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and force the city’s leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budgets indiscriminately.

The 45 convicted received prison terms ranging from four years and two months to 10 years. Legal scholar Benny Tai was given the longest sentence.

They either pleaded guilty to or were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion by three government-approved judges. The judges said in the verdict that the activists’ plans to effect change through the election would have undermined the government’s authority and created a constitutional crisis. Two of the 47 original defendants were acquitted.

Mr. Tai, who had written an article outlining "ten steps to mutual destruction" is widely seen as the organizer behind the unofficial primary. In a judgment uploaded online, the judges wrote that Mr. Tai essentially “advocated for a revolution” by publishing a series of articles over a period of months that traced his thinking, even though in his mitigation letter Mr. Tai said the steps were “never intended to be used as blueprint for any political action.”

Some defendants had claimed that the scheme to secure a majority of seats in the legislature would never have materialized, though the judges rejected this reasoning, stating that “all the participants had put in every endeavor to make it a success."

In the judgment, the judges highlighted that a great deal of time, resources and money had been put into the organization of the primary election, and rejected the idea that the scheme had been “doomed to fail.”