Political prisoner trial developments in Hong Kong this week (15 - 19 May 2023)
Trial of the 47 democrats
Week 15: 15 -19 May 2023
The long-anticipated trial of the 47 democrats opened on Monday 6 February 2023. The trial concerns the 47 democrats who organised or participated in “unofficial” primaries in July 2020. As a result of these primaries, 55 people were arrested in January 2021, in the largest crackdown since the National Security Law was passed.
Of these, 47 have been accused of “conspiracy to commit subversion” and are now facing trial. The majority of defendants have been in detention for 2 years, as only 13 have been granted bail. 31 of the defendants have pleaded guilty. This is one of the most significant trials since the National Security Law (NSL) was passed.
Here are the updates on the fifteenth week of the trial of the 47 democrats:
Development 1: Amy Yeung testifies against Gwyneth Ho
Amy Yeung, a civil servant in charge of vetting the nominations of candidates in New Territories East during the 2020 Legislative Council elections, testified against Gwyneth Ho this week. She was responsible for assessing Ho’s eligibility to run in the election, and decided to ultimately disqualify Ho.
Yeung testified that she had sent Ho a question to assess whether she would “genuinely uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR,” as per a declaration that nominees must sign. However, Ho responded by saying she believed that the national security law undermined the Basic Law, and Yeung decided that she was therefore ineligible to run.
Development 2: National Security Department police officer testifies
Fung Siu-man, a police officer with the National Security Department who was tasked with collecting online evidence relating to the 47 democrats’ case, testified this week as well. She stated that most of the evidence she collected was related to Benny Tai, so he was therefore one of the “major figures” of the investigation and Fung decided to “focus” on him.
Development 3: Mike Lam finished giving evidence
Mike Lam, the businessman who pleaded guilty and became a state witness, finished his testimony. He said that although he was a candidate in the unofficial elections, his “sense of politics was quite poor” and that he ran for thein the eastern New Territories because he had grown up there and had a number of shops in the area.
Development 4: Activist to plead not guilty to breaching mask mandate outside court
Dickson Chau, a Hong Kong activist who was charged with violating the mask mandate while rallying support for defendants on the first day of the trial of the 47 democrats, will plead not guilty.
He and other members from the League of Social Democrats (LSD), a pro-democracy group, had gathered outside West Kowloon Law Courts Building. Chau was speaking through a loudhailer (megaphone), which the police alleged violated the Covid-19 mask mandate at that time. Chau was taken away and fined 5000 HKD.
Political prisoner trial developments:
Jimmy Lai Denied Representation by Overseas Lawyer
On Friday, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance rejected Jimmy Lai’s appeal to have his lawyer, Tim Owen KC, represent him. Hong Kong’s national security committee had previously refused the admission of an overseas lawyer for his trial, a decision that the Court upheld.
Lai’s team argued that Hong Kong’s national security committee had overstepped its powers. However, according to the national security law, Hong Kong courts do not have jurisdiction over the national security committee’s work.
Hong Kong Watch raised concerns about this ruling, and our director of Policy Sam Goodman stated that “Today’s ruling puts to rest erroneous and wishful thinking that the courts or individual judges have the necessary judicial independence to challenge and check the ongoing human rights crackdown in Hong Kong and to ensure that political prisoners receive a fair trial.There is no such thing as a common law system which operates with “Chinese Communist Party” characteristics.”
Hong Kong budgets additional HK$5 billion for ‘safeguarding national security’
On Friday, an official document was published revealing that the Hong Kong SAR has allocated an extra HK$5 billion to its national security “special fund” in the last financial year. This fund allows the financial secretary to establish “a special fund to meet the expenditure for safeguarding national security” that is “not subject to any restrictions in the relevant provisions of the laws in force” as long as he has the Chief Executive’s approval.
This marks another step in Hong Kong’s use of the national security law to appropriate public resources and use these to oppress rights and freedoms.