Political prisoner trial developments in Hong Kong last week (18-23 June)

Trial of the 47 democrats

Week 20: 18-23 June

The long-anticipated trial of the 47 democrats opened on Monday 6 February 2023. The trial concerns the 47 democrats who organised or participated in “unofficial” primaries in July 2020. As a result of these primaries, 55 people were arrested in January 2021, in the largest crackdown since the National Security Law was passed. 

Of these, 47 have been accused of “conspiracy to commit subversion” and are now facing trial. The majority of defendants have been in detention for 2 years, as only 13 have been granted bail. 31 of the defendants have pleaded guilty. This is one of the most significant trials since the National Security Law (NSL) was passed.

Here are the updates on the twentieth weeks of the trial of the 47 democrats: 

Development 1: Cheng Tat-hung (Tat Cheng) finishes giving evidence

Last week, former Eastern District Council member Tat Cheng became the first defendant to give evidence personally against the charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. The democrats have been accused of intending to abuse their powers as lawmakers to indiscriminately vote down government bills, and eventually paralyse the government. 

Cheng finished answering four days of questions from the prosecution. He stated that the Civic Party leadership held an emergency meeting in June 2020 to discuss the impact of the National Security Law, where they decided that if the government did not respond to the “five demands”, the party would not veto all the bills, and they removed the phrase “fundamentally opposed to the National Security Law.” 

He said that he did not agree with the Civic Party’s unified position and wanted to veto the budget and force the Chief Executive to respond to the “five demands” anyway. 

Development 2: Cheng testifies that Civic Party did not plan to overthrow government

Cheng added that, since he has read the Basic Law, he knew that even if the pro-democracy camp could abstain a majority in the Legislative Council and reject the budget, and have the session dismissed, the Chief Executive could still approve of temporary short-terms budgets. Therefore, the veto power discussed in the pro-government camp would not lead to the paralysis of the government nor overthrow the state, which they had no intention of doing.

In addition, the Civic Party changed its political activities and strategy after the National Security Law was passed, which Cheng said he thought was a “public relations consideration” because they were worried about falling membership numbers. They did not publicly give a reason for their changes.

Other Developments

Development 1: Secretary for Justice claims that National Security Law does not violate freedom of assembly 

In an interview with iCable on Sunday, the Secretary for Justice Paul Lam stated that the National Security Law does not violate the right to freedom of assembly in Hong Kong, although  “more radical actions” such as blocking roads might not be a violation. He added that he “would always encourage that fighting for rights is totally reasonable, but [we] cannot stop at nothing to achieve [our] goals.” 

Despite these assurances, Hong Kong has seen very few protests since the National Security Law was passed in 2020 and the protests that did take place were heavily monitored and on less sensitive topics. 

Development 2: Article 23 will ‘Definitely’ be enacted this year or next year 

The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, John Lee, gave an interview to Hong Kong China News Agency stating that Article 23, Hong Kong’s domestic security law, would “definitely” be enacted within this year, or next year at the latest.
He expressed his hopes that the “ the entire process will consist of careful and thorough considerations, resulting in a successful law.” In addition to what is already covered by the National Security Law, Article 23 would prohibit seven types of offences: treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government, theft of state secrets, foreign bodies’ conducting political activities in the city, and local bodies establishing ties with foreign bodies.