Police outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court in Hong Kong on 30 May 2024, where 14 people were found guilty of subversion in the biggest case against pro-democracy campaigners since China imposed a national security law.
The verdicts in Hong Kong's biggest trial against the democratic opposition come more than three years after police arrested 47 democrats in dawn raids at homes across the city. They were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under a national security law imposed by China. "Australia has expressed our strong objections to the Hong Kong authorities on the continuing broad application of national security legislation to arrest and pressure pro-democracy figures," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.
The defendants are accused of a"vicious plot" to paralyse government in the former British colony and force the city's leader to resign through a pre-selection ballot in a July 2020 citywide election. The democrats maintain it was an unofficial attempt to select the strongest candidates in a bid to win a historic majority in Hong Kong's legislature.
Those convicted also include former democratic lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung, Lam Cheuk-ting and Helena Wong. It was not yet clear whether any would appeal, with court adjourned until an afternoon session."Although he might not be well emotionally and still not yet adapted to prison life... he always told me that he's innocent," Leung's wife, Chan Po-ying, told Reuters.
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