- Title: PERSONAL: Wife of convicted Hong Kong activist shares struggles and resilience
- Date: 31st May 2024
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (MAY 24, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST AND WIFE OF CONVICTED PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST LEUNG KWOK-HUNG, NICKNAMED "LONG HAIR”, CHAN PO-YING, SAYING: “I think the biggest feeling is loneliness. On one hand, I am a comrade of ‘Long Hair’ Leung Kwok-hung, I like to use the word ‘comrade’ to describe the relationship between him and me. As in the past, we have fought side by side in the social movement for a very long time.”
- Embargoed: 14th June 2024 08:30
- Keywords: Chan Po-ying Leung Kwok-hung activist arrest democracy hong kong long hair
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
- City: HONG KONG, CHINA
- Country: Hong Kong
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003694931052024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Veteran Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Chan Po-ying had been waiting for over three years to learn the fate of her former lawmaker husband Leung Kwok-hung in a closely-watched landmark subversion case against the city's leading democrats.
The 68-year-old had arrived outside the courthouse early Thursday morning (May 30), alongside several members of her pro-democracy group, The League of Social Democrats, well ahead of the 10:00 a.m. start.
Soon, however, they were surrounded by police.
Chan, 68, was queuing to get into the court at the time, behind the orange barricade tape laid out for the public waiting to witness the biggest-ever criminal trial against Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists.
Known as the 47 democrats trial, three High court judges on Thursday convicted 14 of the 16 democrats for what prosecutors called a "plot" to subvert the government.
In the end, Chan was taken away by police before she was able to witness the verdict, and now her husband faces possible life imprisonment when sentencing comes.
The League of Social Democrats said on its Facebook page that five members of the group including Chan were arrested. She remains in detention. A request for comment to the Hong Kong police wasn't immediately answered.
Chan and Leung are one of Hong Kong's most high profile activist couples. Leung, 68, once nicknamed "long hair" for his ponytail, was often seen donning T-shirts of his hero, the Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevera, at protests before he was jailed in early 2021.
Comrades for many years in the same pro-democracy group, they married just before he was jailed, partly so that she could visit him more often in prison.
"The biggest feeling is loneliness," she told Reuters in an interview before the verdict, noting that he'd always been there by her side to advise and support her.
"I like to use the word 'comrade' to describe the relationship between him and me... we have fought side by side in the social movement for a very long time."
Chan is now one of the last activists still speaking out for democracy and freedom in the Asian financial hub amid a crackdown on dissent under a China-imposed national security law that was enacted in mid-2020 after mass pro-democracy protests.
When Hong Kong's pro-Beijing legislature unanimously passed a new set of national security laws in March against acts including sabotage, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage with up to life imprisonment, Chan and her group were the only people to hold a public protest against it.
Western governments like the U.S. have criticised the security laws as a tool to silence dissent.
The Chinese and Hong Kong governments say the laws have human rights safeguards, and are necessary to restore stability to the city after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
After Leung was arrested, she took over the reins of their small activist group and has led it since July 2021.
Chan said he has struggled in captivity, as he's always been a person who cherishes freedom, but his "will still persists".
"He always tells me that he never believes he is wrong," she said.
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