Veteran Hong Kong democracy leaders convicted over peaceful rally

‘Father of democracy’ Martin Lee and media tycoon Jimmy Lai are among the seven found guilty over 2019 protest.

A court in Hong Kong has found seven prominent pro-democracy politicians and campaigners guilty of unauthorised assembly over their role in a peaceful protest that was one of the biggest rallies in the Chinese-controlled city in 2019. Those convicted on Thursday include media tycoon Jimmy Lai, as well as 82-year-old Martin Lee, who helped launch the city’s largest opposition Democratic Party in the 1990s and is often called the former British colony’s “father of democracy”. The silver-haired Lee and the others sat impassively as district court judge Amanda Woodcock handed down her decision.