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Prior to his trials, nine people who had been charged with “organizing an unauthorized assembly” and “knowingly participating in an unauthorized assembly” for the protest on August 18, 2019, had been sentenced to between 8 and 18 months in prison. Ng Man-yuen had just been released at the end of April 2022. What is behind this “new normal?” The Epoch Times interviewed three people “who had been there,” former League of Social Democrats Chairman Ng Man-yuen, former Tsuen Wan District Councilor Chiu Yan-loy, and former Eastern District Councilor Chan Wing-tai, who shared their thoughts and experiences. However, in the past two years or so, cases of “imprisonment before trial” or “being forced to plead guilty” have been occurring, and there have been criticisms that the Hong Kong National Security Law violated the common law presumption of innocence, and that it reflected the CCP’s disregard for human rights granted by the Basic Law. “Imprisoned before trial” has become the new normal.Īs a former British colony, Hong Kong inherited the tradition of British Common Law, and applies the principle of presumption of innocence, that is, suspects or defendants must be presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial.Īccording to Article 25 of the Basic Law, all Hong Kong residents are equal before the law, and Article 87 of the Basic Law provides that all persons are presumed innocent until convicted by a judicial authority.
PLEAD NOT GUILTY TRIAL
As these cases have just been referred to the High Court for trial, it is expected that the trial will not start until the middle of next year at the earliest. In the case of the pan-democratic camp primary election, 53 people were arrested in early January 2021, 47 of them were charged with “conspiracy to subvert state power.” Some of the defendants were not released on bail and have been in custody for more than a year. From the time that the National Security Law came into effect on June 30, 2020, up until March 2022, 175 people had been arrested on “suspicion of endangering national security,” with eight convictions to date. 28, 2022, a total of 10,277 people had been arrested, of whom 1,172 were convicted. Many protesters were arrested, charged, and subsequently sentenced.Īccording to the information provided to the Hong Kong Legislative Council by the Secretary for Security, Chris Tang Ping-keung, on April 27, 2022: By Feb.
PLEAD NOT GUILTY SERIES
In 2019, a series of demonstrations in Hong Kong, known as the Anti-extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement (the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests) broke out in Hong Kong. We explored their decisions on whether to plead guilty, or not guilty, and the reasons for their choice.
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In this article, we report the views of three Hong Kong activists who had faced court cases, two were charged with offenses in connection to the civil protests in 2019/20, the other faced charges in related to the June 4th candlelight vigil in 2020.