- Title: PERSONAL: Girlfriend braces for sentencing of Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner
- Date: 18th November 2024
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (FILE - JULY 12, 2020) (REUTERS) RESIDENTS QUEUING AT POLLING STATION IN TAI PO RESIDENTS QUEUING AT POLLING STATION AT MA ON SHAN ELECTION VOLUNTEERS AT BOOTH ASSISTING RESIDENTS TO VOTE HONG KONG, CHINA (FILE - JULY 15, 2020) (REUTERS) HONG KONG DEMOCRATS FROM LOCALISTS CAMP HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE AFTER TOPPING THE POLLS IN PRIMARY ELECTIONS, SURROUNDED
- Embargoed: 2nd December 2024 01:39
- Keywords: 47 Court Democracy Hong Kong Protest Sentencing election
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA / LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: HONG KONG, CHINA / LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: Hong Kong
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions
- Reuters ID: LVA008026216112024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: SUBTITLES IN SHOTS NO. 13 TO 16 WERE OVERLAID BY SOURCE
On a rainy day, 29-year-old Emilia Wong steps onto a bus bound for Hong Kong's Stanley Prison, carrying bags of clothes for her boyfriend, Ventus Lau, to wear at his court hearing on Tuesday (November 19).
Lau, 31, is one of 45 pro-democracy campaigners involved in a significant national security trial. The sentencing, to be announced on Tuesday (November 19), will conclude a legal saga that began with the democrats' arrests in January 2021. The anticipated sentences range from several years for participants to potential life imprisonment for principal offenders.
To prepare for the big day, Wong brought Lau a black coat, sports shoes, newly prescribed glasses, and several recently printed photos of herself. Like the families of other defendants, she has waited for the sentencing for three years and nine months, during which she has visited Lau in prison several hundred times since his arrest in 2021.
When asked about her feelings, Wong said, "my mood is very calm right now.”
“After all, life goes on," Wong told Reuters.
Lau and other convicted activists were charged under Beijing's imposed national security law with "conspiracy to subvert the state power" for organising and participating in an unofficial primary election in July 2020. The goal was to maximise the democrats' chances of winning a majority in an upcoming legislative council election.
In May, 14 of the 47 democrats were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion, and two were acquitted.
Earlier, 31 had pleaded guilty, including Lau, in the hopes of reduced sentences.
The convictions have quieted some of the most popular and determined pro-democratic voices, according to social media posts and interviews with lawyers and relatives of half a dozen defendants.
"This case has swept away the entire pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong," said Wong. "They have undergone a kind of social death, and they are temporarily dead in the political arena. Just like that, they were all caught in a single net."
Prior to the trial, the democrats had existed in the space promised when Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula granting the city wide-ranging freedoms denied to those in mainland China. But critics say this model suffered with China's imposition of a national security law in July 2020 after pro-democracy protests swept the city a year earlier.
Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, said democracy in Hong Kong has been put to a stop as an organised movement. The range of people at risk of challenging the government has also widened.
"Moderates are at risk too," said Tsang.
Despite the criticism, Beijing insists that it remains committed to the "one country, two systems" formula, maintaining that Hong Kong's autonomy is intact.
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