Hong Kong top court rules against democracy leaders in protest case

The Hong Kong flag is seen near the High Court in Hong Kong on July 28, 2023. The Hong Kong government said on June 12, 2024 it had cancelled the passports of six democracy activists who fled to the United Kingdom, calling them “lawless wanted criminals”. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s top court on Monday dismissed a bid from seven prominent pro-democracy figures, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai, to overturn their convictions for taking part in an unauthorized assembly that drew nearly two million participants.

The conviction centered on a peaceful August 2019 march through the city at the height of Hong Kong’s democracy protests that went ahead in defiance of a police ban.

The defendants, who include some of the most recognizable faces of Hong Kong’s now-quashed democracy movement, were cleared by a lower court of organizing the rally, which was attended by an estimated 1.7 million people.

READ: Hong Kong cancels passports of six democracy activists

Four of them — newspaper publisher Lai, rights lawyer Albert Ho, activist and ex-lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, and unionist Lee Cheuk-yan — are serving time on various other charges, including national security offenses, after being caught up in the wide-ranging crackdown that followed the 2019 protests.

In their appeal, the seven had contended that nonviolent demonstrators should not be convicted as it would interfere with the right to peaceful protest.

Their lawyers argued that Hong Kong — a former British colony with common law courts — should follow the precedent set by the UK’s Supreme Court that protest-related convictions should be proportionate, taking into account human rights protections.

READ: Hong Kong court convicts 14 pro-democracy activists

But judges at the Court of Final Appeal, including David Neuberger, a former president of the UK Supreme Court, unanimously ruled against them on Monday.

Agreeing with the main judgment written by two local judges, Neuberger wrote that the case concerned “a constitutionally significant, but limited and technical, issue”.

Arguments that “the court should have satisfied itself of the proportionality of the decisions… appear to me to be misconceived”, he added.

Lai, Leung, Lee and former lawmaker Cyd Ho had been sentenced to between eight and 18 months behind bars in the case.

The remaining three defendants — Albert Ho, Democratic Party founder Martin Lee and barrister Margaret Ng — were given suspended sentences.