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Hong Kong pro-democracy activists sentenced in city’s largest security trial

Hong Kong’s High Court has sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to jail terms of up to 10 years in a landmark national security trial that has damaged the city’s democracy movement and drawn international condemnation.

A total of 47 pro-democracy activists were arrested and charged in 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law and had faced sentences of up to life in prison.

Benny Tai, a former legal scholar who was labelled as an “organiser” of the 47, was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Sentences ranged from just over four years to 10 years.

The US has criticised the trial as “politically motivated” and said the activists should be released as they had been “peacefully participating in political activities” that were legal.

The defendants were prosecuted in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election under the 2020 national security law.

They were accused of attempting to paralyse Hong Kong’s government and force the city’s leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budgets indiscriminately.

Two of the 47 original defendants were acquitted.

The 45 convicted either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion by three government-approved judges.

The judges said in the verdict that the activists’ plans to effect change through the election would have undermined the government’s authority and created a constitutional crisis.

The unofficial primary in July 2020, which drew 610,000 voters, was meant to pick pro-democracy candidates who would then run in the official election.

The pro-democracy camp at that time hoped they could secure a legislative majority, which would allow them to press for the 2019 protest demands, including greater police accountability and democratic elections for the city leader.

The government postponed the legislative election that would have followed the primary, citing public health risks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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