HONG KONG — Ten pro-democracy activists were sentenced in Hong Kong on Friday to prison terms ranging from 14 months to 18 months over a 2019 protest, the latest in a series of tough punishments that have put much of the Chinese territory’s opposition camp behind bars, with many more awaiting trial.
All of them pleaded guilty this month to organizing the protest, which had been banned by the police and took place on Oct. 1, China’s National Day. As they led a march on Hong Kong Island, clashes broke out across the city in some of the worst protest violence that year.
Some of those sentenced on Friday, including the media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the labor leader Lee Cheuk-yan and the activist Leung Kwok-hung, who is better known as Long Hair, had already been imprisoned after earlier protest convictions. Two of the sentences, given to the politicians Sin Chung-kai and Richard Tsoi, were suspended for two years.
Fernando Cheung, a pro-democracy former lawmaker, said Friday that “such severe punishments” sent a message of deterrence to the people of Hong Kong days before an annual June 4 vigil to honor the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. On Thursday, the Hong Kong police blocked the event for the second year in a row, citing the coronavirus pandemic.
Also on Friday, Hong Kong’s High Court issued an explanation for why it had denied bail to Claudia Mo, a moderate former lawmaker who is among 47 pro-democracy activists charged under a draconian new national security law. Judge Esther Toh cited, among other reasons, “accusations of desperation and loss of human rights and freedom” that Ms. Mo had made in interviews and WhatsApp conversations with journalists from international news organizations, including The New York Times.
Activists, academics and others are increasingly wary of speaking to the foreign news media in Hong Kong, where press freedom is enshrined in the local constitution but under growing threat.
The array of cases against Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists is part of a broad campaign by the Chinese government to subdue political opposition and constrain the dissent that fueled vast street protests in 2019.
The authorities have been aided in their crackdown by both the security law and more assertive use of what was already on the books.
What is the national security law?
The security law, which Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in June 2020, targets terrorism, subversion, secession and collusion with foreign forces. Its sweeping language, much of which has yet to be tested in courts, gives the authorities new powers to block websites, freeze assets, carry out searches without warrants, dispense with jury trials and hold defendants without bail.
It also allows for defendants in some cases to be tried under mainland law in courts controlled by the ruling Communist Party.
The law has prompted people to seek asylum in…
Read More: Jimmy Lai and Other Hong Kong Activists Are Sentenced Over Oct. 1 Protest