BBC
Forty-five people are to be sentenced on Tuesday
On Tuesday, a court will hand down prison sentences to some of Hong Kong's biggest pro-democracy icons, including Joshua Wong and Benny Tai, in a controversial national security case.
They are part of a group known as the Hong Kong 47 who were indicted three years ago in a crackdown under China's National Security Law (NSL).
Officials accused the eight women and 39 men of trying to overthrow the government by staging an unofficial primary to select opposition candidates for the Legislative Council (LegCo) elections.
Held in July 2020, the primary aimed to help the opposition gain enough of a foothold to block the pro-Beijing government's bills. He attracted more than half a million voters.
The primary was seen as a way to continue the pro-democracy movement after 2019 protests dwindled due to the pandemic. That alarmed officials in Beijing and Hong Kong, who warned the move could violate the NSL that took effect days before the primaries.
The organizers argued that their actions were authorized by the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs Hong Kong and guarantees it certain freedoms.
But at the end of the trial, the justices agreed with the prosecution's argument that the plan would have created a constitutional crisis if the primary winners had been elected legislators.
Most of the defendants pleaded guilty or were convicted of conspiracy to attempt subversion. Two were acquitted in May, meaning 45 people will receive their sentences on Tuesday.
Who are the Hong Kong 47?
Some are famous figures like Joshua Wong and Benny Tai, icons of the 2014 pro-democracy protests that shook Hong Kong.
There are also well-known opposition MPs Claudia Mo, Helena Wong, Kwok ka-ki and Leung Kwok-hung, also known as Long Hair.
But many like Owen Chow, Ventus Lau and Tiffany Yuen represented a new generation of vocal activists. Lau and Chow were among hundreds of people who stormed LegCo and spray-painted Hong Kong's emblem in what became a pivotal moment in the 2019 protests.
Then there are those who weren't involved in politics but were galvanized by the 2019 protests: social workers like Hendrick Lui, entrepreneurs like Mike Lam, and a former nurse, Winnie Yu.
Most of the defendants have been in prison since the arrests in early 2021, with pre-trial detentions becoming the norm under the NSL.
The two acquitted are Laurence Lau, a lawyer and former district councilor, and Lee Yue-shun, also a former district councilor.
The Professor – Benny Tai
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Benny Tai entered politics in 2013
One of the main organizers of the 2020 primaries, Mr Tai was branded by China as a “hardcore troublemaker” for allegedly advocating Hong Kong's independence and describing Communist Party rule as a “dictatorship”.
Academic and law professor Benny Tai first rose to prominence in 2014 when he founded the pro-democracy movement Occupy Central with two others.
It was a historic civil disobedience campaign that called for fair and free elections in Hong Kong and saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets.
In 2019, Mr. Tai was sentenced to prison for his role in the Occupy Central protests.
A year later, after the imposition of the NSL, he was dismissed from his position at the prestigious University of Hong Kong (HKU) due to his criminal conviction.
Mr Tai accused the university of bowing to Chinese pressure and called it the “end of academic freedom” in the city.
At that time, he was already facing accusations of subversion from the NSL for organizing the primary.
The Student – Joshua Wong
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Joshua Wong is arguably one of Hong Kong's most recognizable faces
Arguably Hong Kong's most famous pro-democracy activist, Joshua Wong's activist journey began when he was just 14 years old.
In 2014, he became the face of the Umbrella Movement, a mass student protest with the umbrella as its symbol, which arose alongside the Occupy Central sit-in.
He was just 20 when his activism landed him in prison, the first of several convictions.
In 2019, Hong Kong erupted in months-long protests as hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against a hugely controversial extradition bill that would allow Hong Kongers to be sent to mainland China for trial .
Mr Wong was among thousands of people who laid siege to police headquarters in Wan Chai district for 15 hours, pelting the building with eggs and spraying graffiti on its walls, in June that year.
While the protests at the time were widely seen as a spontaneous “leaderless” movement, prosecutors said he led that particular demonstration, citing a video of him calling on the crowd to “completely besiege the headquarters of the police.”
He was imprisoned for his role in these events and placed in solitary confinement.
But he remained defiant after pleading guilty: “Maybe the authorities want me to stay in prison one sentence after another. But I am convinced that neither prison bars, nor the ban on elections, nor any other arbitrary power will prevent us from campaigning. »
He was still serving his sentence when he was charged with subversion under the NSL.
The 'revolutionary' – Long hair
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Leung Kwok-hung held a yellow umbrella in Parliament in protest.
Former opposition lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, better known as Long Hair because of his hairstyle, once described himself as a “Marxist revolutionary.”
The 68-year-old was known for his political theatrics – one of his signature moves was throwing bananas in protest. When he was sworn in again as a lawmaker in 2016, he released a balloon with a political banner and held a yellow umbrella, declaring that the “umbrella movement would never end.”
This resulted in him being disqualified from the council. He was arrested and imprisoned several times for participating in the 2019 protests.
After the imposition of the NSL in 2020, he married his long-time partner, Vanessa Chan, also known as Chan Po-ying, who is a prominent activist. They were among the founding members of a political party, the League of Social Democrats.
They said they decided to marry because if one of them was imprisoned, they would have broader legal rights, such as visiting prisons.
Forty days after the wedding, Mr. Leung was charged.
The long-time activist – Claudia Mo
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Claudia Mo previously covered the Tiananmen crackdown as a journalist
Claudia Mo, affectionately known in Cantonese as Auntie Mo, was a prominent opposition lawmaker.
She had been a journalist at the AFP news agency, where she covered the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing in 1989.
The 67-year-old helped found the opposition Civic Party in 2006, and in 2012 won a seat in the LegCo after renouncing her British citizenship to hold office.
She was among 15 lawmakers who resigned en masse from the LegCo after the ouster of four pro-democracy lawmakers in November 2020. The move left the LegCo without an opposition presence.
“We had to do it,” she said at the time. “We must protest what could be Beijing’s ultimate crackdown on Hong Kong – to silence the last dissent in the city.”
Police “stormed into the living room” to arrest him in the early hours of January 6, 2021, the FT reported, citing an anonymous source who called the raid “pure brutality.”
She has been in prison ever since. When her husband, British journalist Philip Bowring, fell seriously ill, Ms. Mo was not allowed to visit him from prison.
The LGBT activist – Jimmy Sham
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Jimmy Sham is a prominent LGBTQ activist
A long-time political and LGBTQ activist, Jimmy Sham also led one of Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF).
The group disbanded in 2021, saying it could no longer operate in the face of “unprecedented” challenges posed by Chinese repression.
Mr Sham was violently attacked several times in 2019 and, in one case, ended up on the street with a head injury. CHRF blamed government supporters for this and other attacks on pro-democracy activists at the time, but this was never proven.
The 37-year-old married his partner in New York in 2013 and fought for Hong Kong to recognize same-sex marriages overseas. Hong Kong's highest court handed it a partial victory in 2023 by ordering the government to establish a framework to recognize same-sex partnerships.
At that time, Mr. Sham was in detention for his role in the Hong Kong primaries.
He was repeatedly denied bail, with a judge saying he was a “determined and resolute young man” who would likely continue to commit “acts endangering national security” if released.
The Journalist – Gwyneth Ho
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Gwyneth Ho became famous when she inadvertently live-streamed herself getting beaten up
Before entering politics, Gwyneth Ho, 33, had worked for several media outlets, including BBC Chinese, government channel RTHK and Stand News.
She rose to fame during the 2019 protests when she was beaten by a mob while reporting. The attack landed her in the hospital.
She ran in the 2020 primary and won a large number of votes in her district.
She said during her trial that it was “inevitable” that the 12 pro-democracy candidates, including her, would be disqualified from running in the legislative elections.
“I believe most Hong Kongers knew deep in their hearts that fighting for democracy under Chinese communist rule has always been a fantasy,” she said.
With image contributions from Hong Kong InMedia
