By Jessie Pang and James Pomfret

HONG KONG, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Court of Appeal rejected an appeal by 12 pro‑democracy activists and upheld their jail terms on Monday in a national security case that critics say highlights the China-ruled city's crackdown on dissent.

The appeal stems from the "Hong Kong 47" case, where many leading pro-democracy activists and politicians were arrested en masse in early 2021 and charged with conspiracy to commit subversion. Following marathon legal proceedings, most of the democrats were eventually sentenced in late 2024 to between 4 and 10 years' imprisonment, with two others acquitted.

Rights groups and some countries, including the U.S. and Britain, condemned the case as persecution of Hong Kong's political opposition and called for the immediate release of all those arrested.

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was "deeply concerned" that Australian citizen Gordon Ng had lost his appeal, noting Canberra has "expressed our strong objections to Chinese and Hong Kong authorities on the continuing broad application of national security legislation".

Judges Jeremy Poon, Derek Pang and Anthea Pang wrote in their judgment that the defendants were part of a conspiracy conceived, advocated and pursued by legal scholar Benny Tai to produce a "constitutional mass destruction weapon" aimed at toppling the constitutional order in Hong Kong.

'WHAT CRIMES HAVE THEY COMMITTED?'

The case centred on an unofficial "primary election" organised by the democrats in mid-2020 to select the strongest candidates for a legislative council election.

The prosecution alleged that the democrats were conspiring to win a majority in order to paralyse the government by indiscriminately vetoing the city's annual budget in a bid to force Hong Kong's leader to resign.

The 11 democrats who lost appeals against their convictions included former lawmakers Helena Wong, Lam Cheuk-ting, Raymond Chan and "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung; former district councillors Clarisse Yeung, Kalvin Ho and Tat Cheng; and activists Gwyneth Ho, Owen Chow, Winnie Yu, Gordon Ng.

The democrats, and one other activist, Prince Wong, also failed in their appeals against their sentences, with the exception of Gwyneth Ho who only appealed her conviction.

After hearing the result, the defendants appeared calm and waved to their families and supporters.

"What crimes have they committed?" said Chan Po-ying, the wife of activist Leung Kwok-hung, after the ruling, echoing the arguments of some defence lawyers that legislators in Hong Kong were free to vote against any bills and veto the budget as a lawful "check and balance" under the city's mini-constitution.

ACQUITTAL OF DEMOCRAT UPHELD

Despite the international criticism, Hong Kong and Beijing insist the democrats received a fair trial, and say a China-imposed national security law in 2020 helped restore order to Hong Kong after mass pro-democracy protests the year before.

The judges said any plan to veto the budget indiscriminately, regardless of its content or merits, was "clearly an abuse of the power (of legislators)".

The judges, however, dismissed an appeal by the Department of Justice against the acquittal of barrister Lawrence Lau, saying he had never openly and directly advocated for the vetoing of the budget, like the others.

Lau told reporters he was "happy" with the result.

So far, 18 of the 45 convicted democrats have been released after serving their jail terms.

"By failing to overturn these wrongful convictions and sentences today, the court has missed a critical opportunity to correct this mass injustice," said Fernando Cheung, a spokesman for Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas.

"Peaceful opposition to a government is not a crime, and all remaining jailed members of the Hong Kong 47 should be released immediately and unconditionally."

(Reporting by Jessie Pang and James Pomfret in Hong Kong, Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Saad Sayeed and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Posted by: AAngeles/NET25 News