Forty-seven members of the pro-Democracy camp, two thirds of whom have been imprisoned for two years, are accused of “conspiracy in view of subversion” for having participated in primary elections in July 2020.
by Florence de Changy (Hong Kong, Correspondence)
“This trial is only political persecution, a farce in every sense of the word,” said Dennis Kwok, lawyer and former Civic Party deputy in the Hong Kong Parliament (Legco) and the leader of the opposition, to About the trial-river which opened, on Monday, February 6 in the morning, at the Grand Justice Palace of West Kowloon. Joined by phone, the former chief of the democratic opposition expressed in the United States before being arrested.
The forty -seven figures of the opposition, as much to say almost all of the prudemocracy camp – with the exception of those who managed to leave before the first stroke of January 2021 – are accused of “conspiracy in conspiracy In view of committing an act of sedition “, after their participation in primary elections in July 2020. All the accused participated, either as a candidate or as an organizer.
If they are deemed guilty, they risk very heavy penalties up to life prison under the national security law imposed by Beijing in Hongking in order to gag any form of dissension and entered into force on 30 June 2020.
For Mr. Kwok, “any legal system based on Common Law [the legal system prevailing in Anglo-Saxon countries] and respect for human rights should have dismissed this case there is two years “.
Almost half of the accused are pillars of Hong Kong political life, party leaders and experienced deputies, such as Lee Cheuk-Yan, Claudia Mo, Leung Kwok-Hung alias “Long Hair”, or the teacher by law, Benny Tai, brain of primaries strategy at the heart of the trial.
Others are on the contrary of young faces, from the two recent political movements, the rebellion of the umbrellas in 2014 and the riots “anti-extradition” in 2019, like Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, Gwyneth Ho. In politics during the district elections of 2019 (which the opposition had largely won) hoped to present itself to the legislative elections of September 2020 for the first time. This new guard represented the future of the pro -democracy opposition. But this future has been destroyed by the national security law. For the authorities, this trial is an opportunity to try to definitively rule out political life those who made the pro -democracy opposition exist in Hong Kong.
fragility or even the accusation
Before the court, the accusation will try to convince the judges – they were chosen by name by the chief of the executive, replacing a traditional jury in the trials at the High Court – that the exercise primaries in which the forty-seven accused participated in July 2020 was an attempt to overthrow the government, justifying the accusation of “sedition”.
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