Hong Kong’s highest court on Monday unanimously rejected a petition to overturn the convictions of media tycoon Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy activists for holding an unauthorised assembly in 2019.
Lai, 76, founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, and six others, including veteran democracy activist Martin Li, were convicted in August 2019 of organising and taking part in an unauthorised assembly during months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which is under Chinese rule.
A lower court overturned a conviction for organizing an unauthorized assembly but upheld a conviction for participating in an unauthorized march.
Their appeal focuses on whether the convictions were proportionate to the protection of fundamental human rights, a principle set out in two non-binding decisions of the UK Supreme Court known as “operational proportionality”.
Former UK Supreme Court Chief Justice David Neuberger was one of five judges on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA) who heard the case, spurring debate over whether foreign judges should continue to serve on Hong Kong’s highest court amid a growing national security crackdown.
The ruling came two months after the CFA’s two British judges, Laurence Collins and Jonathan Sumption, resigned. Sumption said Hong Kong was becoming a totalitarian state and that the rule of law in Hong Kong was “seriously undermined.”
Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 after months of pro-democracy protests in 2019, and Hong Kong’s Legislative Council passed a new national security law, also known as Article 23, in March.
Neuberger told Reuters in mid-June that he would remain on Hong Kong’s highest court “to uphold the rule of law in Hong Kong as much as possible.”
Mr Lai and three former lawmakers – Mr Lai Cheuk-yan, 67, long-haired Leung Kwok-hung, 68, and Mr Ho Yang, 70 – were given prison sentences ranging from eight to 18 months.
Hong Kong’s Democratic Party founding chairman Martin Lee (86), lawyer Margaret Ng (76) and veteran pro-democracy politician Albert Ho (72) were given suspended sentences.
Lai has been in solitary confinement for more than three years since December 2020. He is currently serving a five-year, nine-month sentence in a separate national security trial after being convicted of violating the lease on the newspaper’s now-shuttered headquarters.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, 301 people were arrested, of which 176 people and five companies were charged with acts or activities endangering national security.
