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Hundreds of opposition supporters arrived outside West Kowloon Court on Monday morning hoping for a seat at the hearing. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong national security law: defence slams ‘draconian’ case against 47 opposition figures – but proceedings halted after defendant faints

  • Defendant Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying fainted at around 1.45am, after more than nine hours in court – the hearing will resume on Tuesday morning
  • The charges, connected to a July election primary, mark the largest prosecutions yet under the Beijing-imposed legislation
Forty-seven Hong Kong opposition activists appeared in court on Monday, charged with plotting to subvert state power through an unofficial primary election last July, while hundreds of their supporters gathered outside shouting slogans in a show of defiance reminiscent of the 2019 anti-government protests.
Defence lawyers at the West Kowloon Court bail hearing accused the authorities of abusing their power to lock up the activists even though they were not yet ready for the city’s biggest prosecutions under the national security law.

The hearing, which had begun at 4pm, was interrupted at around 1.45am when defendant Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying fainted. The case was adjourned by Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak around an hour later.

The proceedings are expected to resume on Tuesday at 11.30am. Defendant Benny Tai Yiu-ting, the legal academic who organised the unofficial primary, has been given permission to attend an appeal hearing at the Court of Appeal in the morning before returning to West Kowloon Court in the afternoon.

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47 Hong Kong opposition activists charged with subversion under national security law

47 Hong Kong opposition activists charged with subversion under national security law

While asking the court to hold the 47 defendants in custody, prosecutors revealed that they needed at least three extra months for police inquiries, and could not say when those investigations would be completed.

That drew a backlash from the other side of the bench, as defence lawyers called prosecutors’ handling of the case “draconian” and raised concerns that their clients could end up staying years behind bars even before the actual trial could begin.

The opposition figures, including former lawmakers from the pan-democratic camp, stood accused of taking part in a subversive scheme to seize control of the legislature in a bid to paralyse the government and topple the city’s leader, a court document showed.

They were first arrested in January, and charged on Sunday after being told to report earlier than expected to police. All except those already serving jail terms on other charges had previously been granted bail, but they were detained ahead of the hearing.

The hearing drew hundreds of supporters in defiance of Covid-19 social-distancing rules that limit public gatherings to four people at a time.

They wore black, the signature colour of the 2019 protest movement, and formed long queues all day long, attempting to attend the hearing inside.

The supporters displayed banners demanding the “release of all political prisoners”, and chanted familiar slogans such as “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times” – a protest movement mantra which has since been deemed illegal under the national security law.

Opposition supporters gather out outside West Kowloon Court as 47 politicians and activists were set to appear on Monday. Photo: Nora Tam

Scores of police officers were deployed at the scene, raising blue flags to warn protesters they were holding an illegal assembly, and holding up purple flags as well to caution them about national security offences.

Police also threatened to slap fines on the crowd for breaching the ban on large public gatherings, and four people were fined HK$5,000 each for not wearing masks.

In a reflection of the international attention the case has attracted, consular representatives from Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the European Union were among those in line, though there was no room for them inside.

Prosecutors argued in court that the defendants had joined the unofficial opposition primary last year under what they called the “35-plus” plan to seize the majority of seats in the Legislative Council with the final aim of bringing down the government.

Their end game, prosecutors said, was to indiscriminately vote down budgets and public expenditure to trigger a mechanism under the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which would force the chief executive to dissolve Legco and resign as the city’s leader.

The 47 in the dock on Monday were among 55 arrested earlier over the 35-plus plan.

The unofficial primary, which drew a turnout of more than 600,000 last July, was held to narrow the field of candidates deemed most likely to help the opposition bloc score their first-ever majority in the legislature in last September’s polls, which have since been postponed.

Charles Whiteley (left), of the European Union Office in Hong Kong and Macau, was among the consular representatives queuing outside court on Monday. Photo: Nora Tam

Prosecutors argued the candidates in the primary had vowed to push ahead with their final plan if they were elected as legislators, at the expense of their ability to abide by their oath of office and discharge their lawful duties. They also accused the primary’s organisers of securing such agreements from candidates.

Also charged were Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai, former Civic Party leader Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, its vice-chairman Jeremy Tam Man-ho, a group of young district councillors such as Lester Shum and Fergus Leung Fong-wai, activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung and People Power’s Tam Tak-chi – both of whom are currently in jail.
The same day as the hearing, the pro-Beijing Bauhinia Magazine published a speech by Xia Baolong, director of the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, in which he labelled Tai and Wong – as well as media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who faces national security charges in a different case – as “extremists” who had to be “strictly punished”.

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Eight of the 55 opposition figures and lawyers arrested in January were not charged after reporting to police stations.

Deputy director of public prosecutions Maggie Yang Mei-kei told the court on Monday that investigators had inspected over 130 digital devices out of a total of 400 seized from the accused, and they needed more time to analyse their contents as well as to search the defendants’ financial backgrounds.

She asked the court to postpone the hearing to May 31, effectively meaning the 47 would serve three months behind bars as prosecutors opposed their temporary release.

Hong Kong’s top court recently ruled that the common law practice that currently favours bail for defendants does not apply in security law proceedings, and judges should only release the accused on bail in exceptional circumstances.

Pro-democracy activists Benny Tai and Mike Lam arrive at West Kowloon Courts on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Civic Party chairman Alan Leong Ka-kit SC, representing four party members charged in the case, accused prosecutors of taking advantage of the stringent threshold for granting bail under the security legislation and seeking to keep the 47 behind bars even though they were still preparing their case.

“You can’t have your cake and eat it,” Leong said. “On one hand, you are prosecuting at an immature stage, but on the other hand, you oppose people’s releases. This is self-contradictory and a serious blow to freedom and human rights.”

Another defence lawyer, Edward Chan Tak-cheung, called prosecutors’ handling of the case “draconian” and suspected a political motive behind their request to remand the 47 in custody at a time when the government was pushing for electoral reforms.

Martin Hui Siu-ting SC, a former deputy director of public prosecutions now working for the defence, said he had “serious doubts” as to whether three months was enough for the follow-up investigations cited in court.

Hectar Pun Hei SC accused the authorities of abusing their power and court procedures, adding that his client, activist “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, was ready to plead not guilty to the charge.

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Western governments were highly critical, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding the immediate release of the 47. “Political participation and freedom of expression should not be crimes. The US stands with the people of Hong Kong,” he wrote on Twitter.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the decision to charge the group “deeply disturbing”, saying it showed “in the starkest terms” that the national security law was being used to eliminate political dissent rather than restore order.

Veteran activist Lee Cheuk-yan, who was at West Kowloon Court for a separate trial, called the prosecutions “the most absurd thing Hong Kong has seen”.

“This is obviously to get back at them for the election,” said Lee, who is facing an unlawful assembly trial for separate anti-government protests in 2019.

Figo Chan Ho-wun, convenor of march organiser the Civil Human Rights Front, said authorities had gone beyond merely creating a sense of “white terror” through the national security law. “It’s downright suppression,” he said.

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