Former newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai is expected to take the stand when his trial under Hong Kong’s national security law resumes on Wednesday. The hearing comes a day after 45 former politicians and democracy activists received lengthy jail terms for attempting to organise a primary in advance of planned legislative elections in 2020.
Tuesday’s sentences, the heaviest handed down under the national security law since Beijing imposed it on Hong Kong in 2020, included a 10-year jail term for former legal academic Benny Tai. The court found that Mr Tai was the initiator of the plan to boost the pro-democracy camp’s chances of winning a controlling majority in the legislature and to block government legislation until activists’ demands were met.
In a sentencing statement, the three-judge panel noted that the maximum sentence for Mr Tai’s offence was life imprisonment and they rejected arguments that the sentences should be lighter because the primary plan was peaceful and had little chance of success.
“Had the scheme been carried out to the very end, the adverse consequences would be far reaching and no less serious than overthrowing the government,” the judges said.
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The founder of Apple Daily, a tabloid newspaper that backed Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Mr Lai (76) is the most high-profile figure to be prosecuted under the national security law. He is currently serving five years and nine months for fraud in a maximum-security prison, and he could face a life sentence if convicted of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.
Hong Kong’s government this week rejected a claim by human rights and civil liberties lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC that Mr Lai was being unlawfully and arbitrarily detained in respect of all the cases brought against him. And the authorities said that Mr Lai, who has been in solitary confinement for almost four years, chose to be kept apart from other inmates.
British prime minister Keir Starmer raised Mr Lai’s case with Chinese president Xi Jinping when they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio this week. Everyone charged under the national security law until now has been found guilty and a supplementary law introduced in Hong Kong this year makes it more difficult for those imprisoned under the law to be released early for good behaviour.
Amnesty International said the harsh sentences handed down on Tuesday underlined the dire state of Hong Kong’s justice system.
“These sentences, despite going through the motions of mitigation and respect for due process, are clearly intended to punish opponents of the Hong Kong government while intimidating others who might dare to follow them,” Amnesty’s China director Sarah Brooks said.
“None of the 45 people sentenced have committed an internationally recognised crime; they have been jailed only for exercising their human rights. We call once again for their immediate and unconditional release.”
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