A Hong Kong court has handed down sentences to 45 political activists who were ringleaders and participants in a subversive bid to engineer a takeover of the legislature in Macao’s neighbouring SAR in 2020, according to multiple local media reports.
Prominent among those sentenced was former Hong Kong University legal academic Benny Tai, who was given 10 years for his attempt to create what a panel of High Court judges described as a “constitutional crisis.”
Under a 2020 plan he dubbed “mutual destruction,” Tai outlined a political strategy to turn the legislature into a “lethal constitutional weapon,” with the aims of paralysing or bringing down the Hong Kong government. Judges said that, if successful, the scheme would have caused “substantial harm to the power and authority of the government and the chief executive.”
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Among other prominent figures sentenced was Joshua Wong – the subject of a 2017 Netflix documentary. He was given 4 years and 8 months. Others involved in Tai’s plan were given terms up to 7 years and 9 months, and included former lawmakers Au Nok-hin and Claudia Mo, former Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai and ex-Civic Party leader Alvin Yeung.
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee, in commenting on the sentences, described those convicted as “forces who are anti-China and aim to destabilise Hong Kong hope to throw Hong Kong into chaos and subvert state power using the excuses of democracy, freedom and human rights.” He added: “The Hong Kong government will pursue legal responsibilities according to the law and will punish them severely.”
Hong Kong was rocked by widespread unrest in 2019 and early 2020 which brought the city to a standstill. While many were campaigning for greater political freedoms, the protests were marred by nativism and antipathy toward mainland Chinese, who were frequently subjected to intimidation and violence. Many protesters also extolled Donald Trump.
