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The long trial against 47 opponents begins this Monday, including most of the heavyweights of Hong Kong politics. The men and women are charged with sedition after their participation in a primary in July 2020 and, if convicted, face very severe penalties of up to life in prison.
With RFI Hong Kong correspondent Florence de Changy
Of the 47 defendants sitting in the dock, at least half are well-known figures and even pillars of Hong Kong’s political life, party leaders and veteran MPs. Others, on the contrary, are young and have new faces, they represented the new guard, the future of the opposition.
A future wiped out by the National Security Law. There is no longer any pro-democratic opposition in Hong Kong and it is through this trial that the authorities will try to definitively remove from political life those who made its existence possible.
‘Political persecution’
“I believe that this trial is a political persecution and a farce in every sense of the word. Because any judge of integrity, any legal system based on ‘common law’ and respect for human rights would have dismissed this case two years ago.” , declared the lawyer Dennis Kwok, a former representative of the Civic Party who has gone into exile in the United States.
Of the 47 defendants, 34 have been in pretrial detention for almost two years. Sixteen have chosen to plead guilty, simply in the hope that their sentences will be reduced. And three have apparently agreed to become prosecution witnesses. The trial is expected to last until the summer.
