Jimmy Lai biographer Mark Clifford op-ed in Japan Times on the HK Alliance convictions…
Chow Hang-tung first went to jail for lighting a candle…
…Defendants in Hong Kong supposedly have a constitutional right to trial by jury, part of the package of guarantees that ended 156 years of British colonial rule.
But the courts toss out that constitutional protection when it suits them. In National Security Law cases — and now virtually any charge can be defined as a security case — the government tries cases before hand-picked judges drawn from a secret list … Little surprise that authorities have an almost unbroken string of convictions since the National Security Law was imposed on Hong Kong six years ago.
With the local media muzzled, Hong Kongers find themselves living in something of an Alice-in-Wonderland world. Contrary to the facts, the government and its judges even claim that there aren’t any political trials at all.
In Chow’s case, according to the court’s summary of the verdict, judges “emphasized that the defendants were put on trial not because of their political views or beliefs…
Few people could believe such an obvious lie.
The real reason Chow and her fellow Hong Kong Alliance members face a 10-year prison charge is because they dare to publicly oppose the Chinese Communist Party by uttering the words “end one-party dictatorship.” Four words. Ten years. But “not because of their political views or beliefs.”
…[Chow Hang-tung] told the court…
“Telling the truth is recast as inciting hatred, seeking justice as exploiting suffering, limiting power as violating the Constitution, and returning power to the people as subverting the state.” She accused the prosecution of “slander[ing] the Constitution.” By ending one-party dictatorship, she “seeks to end a state in which the Party stands above the law.” What could be illegal about that, asked Chow?
…She was being held without bail at Tai Lam prison while awaiting the verdict. Yet the treatment she described hardly reflected a presumption of innocence:
“It’s no longer just simple handcuffs; now they use a full set of handcuffs, leg irons, waist chains, and ankle chains, and then lead the prisoners like dogs on a chain.” Chow concedes that the written description makes the treatment sound “just more inconvenient and somewhat humiliating, nothing like torture. But it’s only when you actually put on those shackles that you realize the devil is in the details.”
From HKFP – pictures of the Have a Nice Stay bookshop’s last day. Emily Lau was among the hundreds who turned up.
And some pix from last night – 831 – near Prince Edward MTR station.
Enforcement agencies arrest 50 people for bid-rigging in building maintenance projects. If only they had done this a year ago, before over 160 people died at Wang Fuk Court.