Hong Kong democracy activists jailed: Who are they, what’s the case about?

A Hong Kong Court sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to jail terms of up to 10 years on Tuesday, in the first-ever mass sentencing since Beijing imposed a controversial national security law on the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

The activists were among 47 people arrested in 2021 for organising unofficial primary elections to choose pro-democracy legislative candidates. Authorities alleged the action violated the sweeping Beijing security law first introduced in 2020.

In what’s being called the largest national security case in Hong Kong, prosecutors accused the defendants of plotting to “overthrow” the government by forcing the city’s leader to resign. Two people were earlier acquitted during the lengthy trial.

Foreign governments and rights groups swiftly condemned the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities for the verdict amid concerns of democratic backslide and human rights violations in the city of seven million.

Here’s what we know about the sentencing and the case that led to it:

Following a huge wave of protests in 2019 against a new law, which could have allowed extraditions to mainland China, pro-democracy advocates and politicians organised a primary election set for July 2020 to help shortlist candidates who would run in the legislative elections.

The 2019 law was scrapped after millions of people thronged the streets for months, crippling the financial hub. These were the biggest protests since the 2014 Umbrella Movement, which was sparked by Chinese proposals to pre-approve candidates for Hong Kong’s legislative elections.

The pro-democracy camp, with the unofficial 2020 elections, was seeking to hold a majority in the 70-seat legislature and press for greater police accountability and democratic elections to choose the city’s leaders, all key demands of the protesters.

Presently, an Election Committee, mostly handpicked by Beijing, selects a large proportion of Hong Kong’s lawmakers and all the executives, including the chief executive. Hong Kongers can only directly vote for about 20 percent of the legislature.