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Forty-five Hong Kong opposition figures were jailed on Tuesday for four to 10 years for their participation in a plot to overthrow the government in 2020, with former legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting receiving the stiffest sentence for masterminding an unauthorised legislative “primary” election to subvert state power.
The sentencing brought to a close the city’s largest and longest-running national security trial that had initially involved a group of 47 accused of plotting to ride on the momentum of the 2019 anti-government protests to win control of the Legislative Council and destroy the government.
More than two-thirds of the 45 convicted defendants had been on remand since March 2021, effectively reducing the remaining length of their prison term.
Four former lawmakers, including Claudia Mo Man-ching, 67, received the shortest jail term of four years and two months and are expected to complete their sentences as early as April next year.


But Tai, 60, may need to spend another eight years behind bars. The former University of Hong Kong associate professor, also a co-founder of the 2014 Occupy protests, was previously jailed in two cases for a total of 26 months for incitement during the campaign and illegally incurring election expenses in 2016. He had served four months from previous proceedings before he was remanded for the subversion charge.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu lauded the ruling as a fair reflection of the “very serious” nature of the case, holding “anti-China forces” to account for destabilising Hong Kong under the pretext of pursuing democracy, freedom and human rights.
Security minister Chris Tang Ping-keung did not rule out the government filing an appeal against some of the defendants’ sentences but stopped short of identifying specific names.
“This sentence reflects the severity of the crime and shows that crimes that harm national security must be punished,” he said in a press briefing.
The sentencing hearing at West Kowloon Court lasted 15 minutes, during which activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung waved to the public gallery and proclaimed “I love Hong Kong” before leaving the dock.
The 28-year-old former student leader, seen as the poster boy of the 2014 Occupy protests, was jailed for four years and eight months.
He is expected to complete his jail term in early 2028, having been sentenced previously to a total of more than 2½ years in four unrelated cases.


In an 82-page document on the reasons for sentence, the three presiding High Court judges adopted a starting point of 15 years’ imprisonment for Tai after considering him to be a “principal offender” of the subversion plot, which sought to create a “constitutional crisis” after taking over the legislature.
They sentenced him to 10 years in jail after knocking off one-third for his timely guilty plea.
“In short, [Tai] was not only the initiator of the scheme, but also an organiser of the primary election,” the judges said. “He was the mastermind behind, hence could well be placed in the ‘[principal] offender’ category.
“[Tai] might not be the one standing in the primary election … he however provided the necessary platform for those who intended to exercise the vetoing power under the scheme.”

Tai had proposed the idea of holding the primary at the height of the 2019 unrest to maximise the opposition camp’s chances of winning control of the Legislative Council at the next election, then due in September 2020.
He said by winning a majority, the opposition could turn the council into a “lethal constitutional weapon” that would force the government to succumb to the protesters’ demands.
The judges had earlier found the primary to be part of a wider plot to “undermine, destroy or overthrow” the city government.
The court also noted that Tai had expressed “extreme views” in an April 2020 article, with the judges saying that, in essence, he had “advocated for a revolution”.
In their sentencing, they made a distinction between organisers, those who pleaded guilty and those who pleaded guilty and became prosecution witnesses.
Ex-lawmaker Au Nok-hin, 37, and former district councillors Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, 39, and Ben Chung Kam-lun, 36, who organised the unofficial poll with Tai, were jailed for between six years and one month and seven years.
They were given significantly shorter sentences than Tai after the court granted them extra reductions of 49 to 55 per cent, largely because of the assistance they rendered to prosecutors by testifying against 16 of their former comrades in a 118-day trial.
Another 27 defendants who pleaded guilty before the trial, including some of the prominent figures from the opposition camp, were jailed for between four years and two months and five years and seven months after an automatic reduction of 20 to 33 per cent for admitting to the offence.


Former Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai, 62, and ex-Civic Party leader Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, 43, were jailed for four years and five months and five years and one month respectively.
Former district councillor Ng Kin-wai, 29, was meted the longest sentence among the batch after he indicated he was not sorry for his transgression.
The remaining 14 were sentenced to imprisonment for six years and six months to seven years and nine months after they were convicted in the trial.
Localist activist Owen Chow Ka-shing, 27, was handed the longest sentence among the 14 for co-drafting an online declaration to ensure participants of the unofficial poll be bound by its result in order for the scheme to be successful.
The court had cleared two out of the 47 initially charged – former district councillors Lawrence Lau Wai-chung, 56, and Lee Yue-shun, 31 – in the landmark ruling in May over a doubt on whether they had agreed to become part of the conspiracy.
The Department of Justice has lodged an appeal against Lau’s acquittal but will not seek to reverse the ruling on Lee.
On Tuesday morning, hundreds of residents braved the drizzly weather to join the winding queue outside the court building hoping to learn the sentences first-hand.
Only five people succeeded in catching a glimpse of the defendants from the public gallery, as most seats had been reserved for their lawyers and relatives. Another 399 spectators had to watch the hearing via a live broadcast in separate rooms.
Police were on high alert, putting up cordon lines to monitor the crowd and pulling activists over to conduct body searches.
In their written judgment, the three judges ruled that those running in the unofficial poll in July 2020 were “essential characters” of a wider plot to paralyse the government through casting an indiscriminate vote against its financial blueprints once they seized control of the legislature.
Justices Andrew Chan Hing-wai, Alex Lee Wan-tang and Johnny Chan Jong-herng refused to impose shorter sentences on the argument by the defence that the plot was “bound to fail”.
They pointed out that all the participants had been eager to ensure a successful primary, as evidenced by its sophisticated design and extensive discussions on logistical arrangements and backup plans in case some candidates were disqualified from the official race.
The judges stressed that the present case, despite its non-violent nature, was no less serious than overthrowing the government by force, given the potentially “far-reaching” consequences had the conspirators succeeded in their plot.
But the court ruled that they were not bound to sentence the defendants based on a three-tier sentencing regime provided by the security law, noting that the charge at centre of the trial was strictly a conspiracy offence under local legislation.
Under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, the city’s domestic counterpart of the national security law, no prisoner convicted of such offences can be granted early release unless the correctional services commissioner is satisfied the decision will not jeopardise the country’s interests.
The rule effectively means that most of the 45 defendants will have to serve their sentences in full before their release.
The latest ruling drew a fresh round of condemnations from the West, with the European Union branding it as “another unprecedented blow against fundamental freedoms, democratic participation and pluralism in Hong Kong”.
A United States consulate spokesman called for the immediate release of the 45 defendants, saying they were “aggressively prosecuted and jailed for peacefully participating in normal political activity”.
Catherine West, the British foreign office minister for the Indo-Pacific, said the 45 opposition figures were jailed for “exercising rights and freedoms” guaranteed under the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
In response, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian accused “some Western countries” of making unfair accusations against Hong Kong’s “fair” judicial process.
“No one can engage in illegal activities under the guise of democracy and attempt to escape legal action,” he said.
“The Chinese central government supports Hong Kong in safeguarding national security and punishing actions that endanger it in accordance with the law, and opposes Western countries’ interference in China’s internal affairs by taking advantage of [court] cases to discredit the rule of law in Hong Kong.”


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Hong Kong courts

Hong Kong 47: 45 activists jailed for 4 to 10 years over plot to overthrow government

The defendants head back to jail in a prison vehicle.  Photo: Sam Tsang

Benny Tai. Photo: Winson Wong

Hong Kong 47: dozens queue outside court ahead of sentencing of 45 opposition activists

Dozens of residents queue outside West Kowloon Court in Cheung Sha Wan ahead of the sentencing hearing for 45 opposition figures. Photo: Eugene Lee

Residents queue outside West Kowloon Court in Cheung Sha Wan ahead of the trial’s sentencing hearing set for Tuesday. Photo: Eugene Lee

An anti-riot armoured vehicle parked on a strip of road near West Kowloon Court. Photo: Eugene Lee

Hong Kong 47: Benny Tai jailed for 10 years over plot to overthrow government

Police stand guard outside West Kowloon Court as Hong Kong’s landmark subversion trial draws to a close. Photo: Sam Tsang

Residents queue to get into the court ahead of the sentencing hearing. Photo: Sam Tsang

Joshua Wong back in 2019. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Claudia Mo. Photo: May Tse

Owen Chow. Photo: Facebook/Owen Chow

Merchant Mike Lam. Photo: May Tse

Gordon Ng. Photo: Facebook

Former district councillor Ng Kin-wai. Photo: Facebook/Ng Kin-wai

As it happened: Hong Kong 47 – 14 found guilty of subversion and 2 acquitted under national security law over election plot to overthrow government

Police on guard outside the court building. Photo: Sam Tsang

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Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Former legal scholar and ‘mastermind’ Benny Tai receives 10-year prison term


Former legal scholar and ‘mastermind’ Benny Tai receives 10-year prison term.


Hong Kong 47: 45 activists jailed for 4 to 10 years over plot to overthrow government

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Former legal scholar and ‘mastermind’ Benny Tai receives 10-year prison term

Former legal scholar and ‘mastermind’ Benny Tai receives 10-year prison term