The Japan Times - Hong Kong appeals court upholds jailing of 12 democracy campaigners

The 12 appellants were among 45 opposition figures, including some of the Chinese city's best-known activists, who were sentenced to prison in 2024 for organising an unofficial primary election that authorities deemed a subversive plot.

The 2020 poll had hoped to improve the chances of pro-democracy lawmakers winning a majority in the legislature, so that they could then threaten to veto the city budget unless the government accepted demands such as universal suffrage.

On Monday High Court Chief Judge Jeremy Poon said the poll was devised as part of a "constitutional weapon of mass destruction", which was unlawful even without the threat of using force.

"The pursuit for universal suffrage does not entitle (a person) to embark on a plan ... for the purpose of seriously interfering in or destroying the constitutional order," Poon wrote.

The three-judge panel dismissed appeals from the 12, including ex-lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, former journalist Gwyneth Ho and Gordon Ng, an Australian citizen.

The campaigners smiled and waved from the dock to their supporters in the public gallery, which included defendants in the same case who had finished serving time.

Pro-democracy activist Chan Po-ying, wife of defendant Leung, said the outcome was "absurd" and that judges "presumed that the defendants wanted to subvert state power".

Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Fernando Cheung said the court had "missed a critical opportunity to correct this mass injustice".

- Informal election -

The high-profile "Hong Kong 47" case stemmed from the aftermath of huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that convulsed Hong Kong from 2019.

In June 2020, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that snuffed out most dissent in the semi-autonomous city.

A record number of voters turned out for the primary the following month to select pro-democracy candidates for a legislative election later that year.

In 2021, authorities rounded up the opposition figures in a mass arrest that drew international condemnation and deepened fears that the security law had eroded freedoms.

Aged between 28 and 69, the group included democratically elected lawmakers and district councillors, as well as unionists, academics and others ranging from modest reformists to radical localists.

In 2024, the court convicted 45 people and acquitted two.

During the appeal hearing last year, defence lawyer Erik Shum said lawmakers should be allowed to veto the budget as a form of "check and balance", as stated in Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

Shum said lawmakers should not be answerable to the courts over how they vote because of the separation of powers.

The appeal judges wrote on Monday that coordination was "inevitable" for the executive and legislative branches of government.

Judges accepted that Hong Kong's mini-constitution allowed lawmakers to veto a budget, but said "that occasion must be extremely rare".

- Varying jail terms -

The 45 convicted campaigners were given sentences ranging from four years and two months to 10 years, depending on their role and whether they received reduced penalties.

After Monday's defeat, the appellants can take their case to Hong Kong's top court, though they have yet to confirm if they will.

As of last month, 18 other defendants who did not contest their convictions have been released after completing their prison sentences.

Most of them have kept a low profile and refrained from commenting on politics. The handful who watched Monday's court session declined to speak to the media.

Prosecutors had challenged the acquittal of one of the two people found not guilty, barrister Lawrence Lau.

On Monday the court upheld the acquittal, saying the trial judges were right to have doubts about Lau's subversive intent.

M.Sugiyama--JT