A veteran champion of democracy in Hong Kong has described its legal system as an instrument of political suppression, after he and eight other high-profile figures went on trial in one of the biggest court cases linked to the protest movement that paralysed the city for more than a year.
“It’s the department of justice, the police department and the Hong Kong government who should be on trial because they have deprived us of our constitutional rights,” said Lee Cheuk-yan after the day’s proceedings. “This year is the year of the ox so we should be stubborn as an ox.”
The group are charged with organising and participating in an unauthorised assembly in the early months of Hong Kong’s mass protests, which ended only when the outbreak of Covid-19 and a brutal crackdown by Beijing combined to push demonstrators off the streets. Both charges carry penalties of up to five years in jail.
Other defendants include Martin Lee, considered the father of the democracy movement in Hong Kong, the media tycoon Jimmy Lai, and Margaret Ng, a highly respected former legislator. It is the first time on trial for Martin Lee, 82, and Ng, 73. Seven of the defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
As proceedings began at West Kowloon magistrates court on Tuesday, one defendant, the former deputy convener of the Civil Human Rights Front, Au Nok-hin, pleaded guilty to both charges and was convicted, according to local media. The former legislator Leung Yiu-chung pleaded guilty to joining the unlawful assembly and was also convicted.
The pair’s cases have been adjourned for mitigation next month.
Lee Cheuk-yan and the veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung, known as Long Hair, shouted “object to political prosecution!” while entering their pleas of not guilty.
In their opening statement, prosecutors accused the group of defying police instructions and encouraging crowds to march across Hong Kong’s main island, causing traffic disruption.
Lawyers for Martin Lee and another defendant, Albert Ho, told the court they would submit an expert report relating to police operation matters, RTHK reported. The Apple Daily newspaper said defence teams also challenged the constitutionality of the police force’s ability to ban assemblies, especially when protests were directed at them.
Outside court on Tuesday morning Lee Cheuk-yan told local media the group was fighting for the right to assembly. Before the trial, supporters and several of the accused rallied outside the court. One banner read: “Peaceful assembly is not a crime; shame on political prosecution.”
The charges relate to a rally on 18 August 2019, when an estimated 1.7 million people – or more than one in five Hongkongers – peacefully marched in defiance of police orders and torrential rain. Its organisers, the Civil Human Rights Front, had been given permission to hold a rally in Victoria Park, but not for a march through the streets. The huge crowd filled the park, and spilled on to the streets, taking over major roads to walk to government offices a few kilometres away, protesting recent acts of police violence. In contrast to many protests before and after that day, it remained peaceful.
Hong Kong: 1.7m people defy police to march in pouring rain
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Eight months later, police arrested 15 people accused of organising the 18 August rally and two other protests, drawing international rebuke, including a warning from the UN. The government said in response it always respected and protected human rights and freedoms, but “these rights are not absolute”, and they must not unacceptably affect the enjoyment by others of their rights and liberties.
Lee Cheuk-yan is facing three other trials this year on separate but similar charges, for organising unauthorised assemblies including a 2020 vigil for the Tiananmen Square massacre. “I think it’s inevitable I will go to jail,” he said. “I think I will be lucky to win one, but the worse case scenario is I will lose all four.”
The charges at Tuesday’s trial are not related to national security, although at least one of the accused, Lai, will face national security charges at a later date and is in jail on remand. The case does not test the new laws brought in by Beijing with the blessing of Hong Kong’s government to crush dissent and opposition, but it has been controversial nonetheless.
Benjamin Yu is prosecuting the group, after the British QC David Perry bowed to international outrage and withdrew last month.
Speaking after the 15 were arrested last year, Martin Lee, reflecting on the thousands who had been detained over their participation in protests, said he was “proud and relieved to be listed as a defendant, after seeing so many brilliant young people arrested”.
Lee Cheuk-yan said at the time authorities were using the pandemic as a “golden opportunity” to round up opposition figures, and labelled the arrests as “revenge and retaliation”.
“If we are found to be guilty of the [participation] charges, then 1.7 million people should be guilty of participation in an unauthorised assembly,” he said. “But that’s absurd … Are you going to prosecute 1.7 million people?”
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