GEIS-新闻详情

Hong Kong sees first guilty pleas under national security law

2021-08-19 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - A pair of Hong Kong men pleaded guilty to foreign collusion charges linked to the case against media tycoon Jimmy Lai, illustrating the pressure local activists face to admit wrongdoing under a China-drafted national security law.

Activist Andy Li and legal assistant Chan Tsz-wah pleaded guilty on Thursday (Aug 19) in the city's High Court to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security. Prosecutors have said the pair worked with Lai to advocate foreign sanctions against China, as well as help Li and 11 other activists try to flee to democratically run Taiwan.

Representatives from the consulates of Germany, Sweden, Australia and the UK attended the hearing.

The guilty pleas are the first in Hong Kong under the Beijing-imposed security law, which bans secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, and carries prison sentences as long as life in prison.

More than 130 people - including journalists, activists and former lawmakers - have been arrested under the legislation and the US has sanctioned Chinese officials including Chief Executive Carrie Lam over the crackdown.

The law's broad wording, long sentences and restrictions on jury trials put pressure on defendants to plead guilty before facing a panel of judges specially vetted by Mrs Lam.

Last month, a court handed down a nine-year sentence in the first national security trial, after convicting former waiter Tong Ying-kit of incitement to secession and engaging in terrorist activities for driving a motorcycle into a group of police while carrying a protest banner.

A plea could help a defendant get their sentence reduced by one-third, said Prof Sharron Fast, a law lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. "A plea of guilty at an early stage in otherwise unwinnable cases disposes of the matter quickly, and potentially can have the advantage of concurrent or partially concurrent - rather than consecutive - sentences," she said.

Lai's Apple Daily closed in June under government pressure. The pro-democracy newspaper's editor-in-chief, Ryan Law, and publisher, Cheung Kim-hung, are being held on charges they conspired with Lai and others to get foreign forces to impose sanctions or a blockade, or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

Lai himself is in prison for his roles in unauthorised protests, and he is facing separate national security charges on allegations that he colluded with foreign powers.

Li served a seven-month sentence on the mainland on charges of illegal border crossing before being returned to Hong Kong in March.

Separately, 47 activists and politicians charged with subversion under the security law for participating in an unofficial primary election last year are set to appear in court in September.