Joshua Wong’s national security case has been transferred to a higher court, where the pro-democracy activist faces up to life in prison after completion of committal proceedings.
Wong appeared in the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday morning to face a charge of conspiracy to carry out foreign deals, a crime under the national security law imposed by Beijing.
He was arrested in June last year while in prison. Wong is currently serving a four-year, eight-month prison sentence for his involvement in the another case of national security related to the primary elections in 2020to which he pleaded guilty.
In this case, the 29-year-old is standing accused of conspiracy with self-sent activist Nathan Law and “other unknown persons” between July 1 and November 23, 2020, to urge foreign countries, organizations or individuals based overseas to impose sanctions, blockades or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.
Law, who now lives in the UK, and Wong, along with other former student activists, co-founded the pro-democracy political party Demosisto, which was disbanded hours after China’s legislature passed the national security law on June 30, 2020.
Magistrate Victor So said in August last year that Wong’s case would be transferred from the magistrate’s court to the High Court, where the maximum sentence is life imprisonment. In the magistrates’ court, the maximum sentence is two years, or three years when the defendant faces more than one offence.
Since then, Wong has appeared in a series of hearings regarding the case being brought to the Supreme Court.
below court reporting lawsmedia reports on the proceedings involving the transfer of cases from the Magistrate’s Court to the Supreme Court are very limited.
The reports cannot publish the content of the proceedings and can only describe information such as the names of the defendants, judges and lawyers, and information on the charges.
Wong has been detained since November 2020when he was detained in an unauthorized assembly case linked to anti-extradition protests and riots in 2019.
Beijing introduced national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 after a year of pro-democracy protests and riots. He criminalized it subversion, secession, cooperation with foreign forces and acts of terrorism – broadly defined to include disruption of transportation and other infrastructure.
This move gave the police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds ARRESTS BETWEEN new legal precedentswhile dozens civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say so restore stability and peace in the city, rejecting criticism from trading partners, AND AND NGO.
