Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, along with the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were found to have breached the National Security Law (NSL) by repeatedly calling for an end to “one-party dictatorship” between July 2020 and September 2021.
A three-judge panel said that the defendants had targeted the Communist Party of China (CPC) and their call for an end to “one-party dictatorship” carried the meaning of “’overthrowing’ and ‘undermining’” the party.
They had been “hostile” towards both the party and the Central Government, and had refused to make any compromise, the judges said.
The court also rejected defence arguments that the defendants had genuinely believed that they had been acting within the confines of the law.
“They did not genuinely and honestly believe that their words and deeds were not in breach of the NSL”, the judges said.
“They just refused to pull back from the brink and were bent on embracing the resistance line of the Alliance to the very end”.
The judges also rejected the defendants’ claims that they were merely exercising their right to free speech, as they had never supported violence or proposed any specific action or plans.
The defendants “intentionally encouraged supporters of the Alliance to wait for the right time to carry out the goal of ‘end one-party dictatorship’ with unlawful means,” the judges wrote.
“Even though they believed and envisaged that the acts of resistance may not necessarily involve the use of violence or threat of violence, those acts would be in breach of the NSL and carry a risk of long-term imprisonment.
“[They] knew that what they had said and done might have already gone beyond the scope of lawful freedom of expression. Nonetheless, they paid no regard to it,” the judges concluded.
The court also said Lee and Chow, who were the chair and vice-chair of the Alliance, had been the “directing mind and will” of the group, alongside another former vice-chair, Albert Ho, who had pleaded guilty to the same charge in January.
The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. Sentencing is expected on a later date.