Yung Chi Wai Derek, Shutterstock.com
CV NEWS FEED // Hong Kong’s highest court has dismissed an attempt to overturn the convictions against Catholic free-speech activist and media mogul Jimmy Lai and six other protestors who participated in an “unauthorized” demonstration in 2019.
According to the latest reports, Lai and the other defendants had argued in the appeal that their sentences were disproportionate to the gravity of the alleged offense and their human rights.
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ruled unanimously on Aug. 12 that the defendants’ argument was “unsustainable,” upholding the conviction that the group had participated in an unauthorized procession.
Lai has been detained in prison since the end of 2020.
Lai’s trial began in December 2023 after facing multiple delays over the prior three years, which he spent in prison for the 2019 demonstration against police abuse in Hong Kong.
According to the court documents, the Hong Kong-based Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) had approached the Commissioner of Police (CP), stating its intention to hold a demonstration against police brutality. Their proposed event was to consist of a public gathering at a park, followed by a procession through the streets and final gathering.
The CP approved the initial gathering, to take place at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, but objected to the procession and subsequent meeting for reasons related to “interests of public safety, public order, and protection of the rights and freedom of others.” The CP’s decision was further upheld on appeal.
The court document states that the CHRF went on to carry out the procession under the guise of “help[ing] participants to disperse safely” from the gathering.
The judge wrote in the opinion that what took place “was not a dispersal plan born out of necessity but an unauthorized public procession,” citing video footage of participants chanting and carrying banners with pro-democracy slogans.
“If safety was paramount and dispersal the object,” the judge concluded, “then this flies in the face of logic and credibility.”
