After joint 108 years on remand, Hong Kong 47 face security trial verdict

The trial of prominent democracy activists and politicians, who were arrested in 2021, is the largest under the security law.

A verdict is finally looming in Hong Kong’s longest running and largest national security trial of 47 pro-democracy legislators and political activists, with the defendants having together logged 39,000 days or some 108 years on remand even before the sentencing phase of the trial begins.

The group was first arrested by the territory’s national security police in a pre-dawn crackdown on January 6, 2021, for allegedly conspiring to commit “subversion” by organising an unofficial primary election to choose pro-democracy candidates in July 2020. The defendants include the alleged organisers as well as would-be candidates who hoped to win the primary and contest then semi-democratic legislative council elections, which were eventually cancelled, with prosecutors claiming it was an attempt to “overthrow” the government.

Two-thirds of the defendants have been in remand since a marathon bail hearing in March 2021.

On Thursday, a panel of three handpicked national security judges will start delivering their verdict for the 16 defendants who pleaded “not guilty”.

The decision follows a lengthy trial that ran from February to December 2023 and was delayed not only by outbreaks of COVID-19 but also by the sheer logistics of organising such an enormous undertaking.