Hong Kong media mogul opponent Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 12 years in prison for being among the organizers of a mega-pro-democracy protest in the former British colony in August 2019.
There were 9 defendants, including some “veterans” of the opposition, active for years with non-violent initiatives to obtain democracy in the former British colony. They are the last in order of time to have been tried in a phase of relentless suppression of protests by China. The hearing was attended by many supporters, but also journalists and diplomats from the EU, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Germany and France.
Among the defendants also 82-year-old lawyer Martin Lee, who in 1997 had contributed to the drafting of the basic law wanted by China for the semi-autonomous region, the 73-year-old former opposition MP Margaret Ng, and the media magnate of the same age , Jimmy Lai, already in pre-trial detention for crimes established by the recently disputed security law wanted by Beijing.
According to the organizers, 1.7 million people participated in the demonstration two years ago, almost a quarter of the inhabitants of Hong Kong.