In the verdict of the “trial of the 47” they are accused – with the approval of the judges – of having organized primary elections in 2020 to try to obtain a majority in the Legislative Council and achieve a motion of no confidence against the then governor Carrie Lam (appointed by Beijing) through the budget law. For this “crime” dozens of people are and will continue to be in prison. Meanwhile, the trial against Jimmy Lai continues, with a sentence that seems to have already been written.
Milan (/Agencies) – A long-awaited sentence was issued today in Hong Kong, in what has been called the “trial of the 47”, the members of the pro-democracy movement detained in January 2021 for having dared – six months before – to defy “national security” by organizing primary elections with a view to voting for the Legislative Council, the local “Parliament” of Hong Kong. A heterogeneous group, by age and origin, of former councilors and young students, as well as veterans of local political movements, lawyers and journalists.
Three judges – specially appointed, as established by the National Security Law – today imposed 14 sentences for “subversion”, which are added to the other 31 of the group who at the beginning of the trial (more than a year ago) had already declared themselves “guilty.” ” because they have lost faith in the Hong Kong judicial system and are in prison. Among them Joshua Wong, the young leader of the 2014 “umbrella movement”, one of the best-known faces of the protests in Hong Kong. As for the length of the sentences, they range from a minimum of three years to life imprisonment, depending on the “involvement.”
Today there were only two acquittals: former district councilors Lawrence Lau and Lee Yue-shun, which offered a semblance of normality in the court’s sentencing, almost as if to demonstrate that in Hong Kong there is still the possibility of not finding guilty in a trial for a crime linked to the disastrous National Security Law. However, the prosecution has already announced that it will appeal these acquittals. In their 319-page verdict, the judges argue that those who conspire to subvert state power do not necessarily have to use force or criminal means to be found guilty of violating the law, nor do they have to know that their tactics are illegal. .
To understand what this means – and also the degree of repression of democratic aspirations in Hong Kong – it is worth going back to the history of the primary elections organized in July 2020. Indeed, that vote took place after the massive demonstrations in 2019 in the wake of the extradition law to China, and soon became a more widespread battle for democracy against the repressive policies of then-governor Carrie Lam, chosen by Beijing. The key fact was the extraordinary success of the candidates linked to the pro-democracy movement in the elections for district councils held on November 24, 2019: an unprecedented turnout of 71.23% of citizens eligible to vote for these administrative councils of neighborhood, which led to the conquest of 388 seats out of a total of 452 at stake and left Beijing with only crumbs.
It was then that the idea of primaries was born, to try to fight an almost impossible battle: win half of the seats in the Legislative Council to be able to challenge Carrie Lam’s government through the budget vote. A very difficult undertaking because at that time the Legislative Council had 70 seats, of which only 35 were directly elected by the citizens of Hong Kong. Therefore, to be successful, pro-democracy representatives would have had to win seats in all 35 electoral districts in order to counteract members appointed by rigidly pro-Beijing bodies.
The primaries would then have served to bring together the different souls of the protest against Carrie Lam, in order to converge on those candidates capable of winning anywhere. The primary elections, initially postponed due to the pandemic, were held on July 11 and 12, 2020 with a participation of more than 600,000 people. An extraordinary fact, taking into account that at that time the National Security Law imposed by Beijing had already come into force and the intention was clear not to tolerate any challenge to the government imposed in Hong Kong by the People’s Republic of China.
The response of the authorities was to immediately postpone the elections for a year with the excuse of Covid-19 and then – on January 6, 2021 – the arrest of all the main promoters and candidates, accused – precisely – of “subversion”, the basis on which they were judged today. When the elections for the new Legislative Council were held on December 19, 2021 – after the postponement – the composition had been modified, drastically reducing the number of directly elected councilors (only a quarter) and, above all, not admitting no candidacy outside the “patriotic” forces. This Council, formed with these premises, voted unanimously last March in favor of further tightening national security regulations, in accordance with Article 23 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong.
Taking this background into account, it is evident that the judges, following instructions from Beijing, condemn as a crime of “subversion” something very simple: wanting to decide who governs Hong Kong’s institutions. This is what “the attack on national security” consists of today. And it is also the central issue of other ongoing trials, first of all that of Jimmy Lai, the 76-year-old Catholic businessman, imprisoned for more than 1,000 days as a promoter of the pro-democracy newspaper AppleDailywhich was forced to close in 2021. The trial against him, which began on December 18, has been going on for more than five months with surreal accusations and an outcome probably already written, like the case of the “trial of the 47”.
While, as we reported just a few days ago, in another important case, that of the activists who organized the commemorations of the Tiananmen Square massacre each year, arrests continue to this day. The count of political prisoners of the Hong Kong Democratic Council has increased to 1869. Always in the name of “national security.”
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