Justice sought and still sometimes found

A place many pro-democracy activists now have been

to more times than they care to do so 

 

Using their day in a Hong Kong court to cast more attention

on the 12 Hong Kongers facing trial over in Mainland China
 

Until this past May, I had never paid a visit to the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court.  Now the way there has become familiar and I'm even able to recognize the voice as well as face of at least one presiding magistrate.  Fortunately for me, I've only ever been there to view judicial proceedings.  Consider it one way to support people who I believe in along with our common cause.         

On this occasion, I was there to attend the hearing of eight pro-democracy activists who were arrested two Tuesdays ago (December 8th) and formally charged today with holding or organising, or inciting others to taking part in an "illegal assembly" on July 1st.  With bail having been denied to Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam when they faced similar charges, there was a genuine possibility that the same would be the case for today's eight defendants.  So it was considered a minor victory that they all were granted bail of HK$1,000 -- even though not so long ago, this would have been considered just par for the course.    

 

Still, after the prosecutors argued that there was high risk that some of the defendants would "do a runner" and flee Hong Kong (to go into exile), a la Ted Hui, the magistrate imposed some restrictions on the octet.  Wu Chi-wai, Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Leung Kwok-hung (all former legislative councillors), Civil Human Rights Front convenor Figo Chan, Eastern District Council members Bull Tsang Kin-shing, Andy Chui and Chan Wing-tai, and League of Social Democrats member Tang Sai-lai have been explicitly forbidden to leave Hong Kong, had to surrender their travel documents, are to stay at their addresses and have to report to specified police stations once a week until the court reconvenes to hear this particular case on the afternoon of  February 8th of next year.

Some of the eight took their court appearance this afternoon to post reminders about "five demands, not one less" and also draw attention to the plight of the 12 Hong Kongers who tried unsuccessfully to flee to Taiwan by sea, 10 of whom were formally charged by the Mainland Chinese authorities yesterday (while the remaining two, both of whom are minors, will hear their fate at a later date).  With regards to the latter: some might say that surely those facing prosecution in Hong Kong have enough worries of their own?  Here's the thing though: as much as what's happening to Hong Kong is pretty alarming, it also is the case that things are considerably worse over in Mainland China (particularly Xinjiang and Tibet but by no means just there) as far as justice as well as freedom is concerned.       

 

In recent days, there have been reports indicating that more than half a million people from ethnic minority groups have been coerced into picking cotton in Xinjiang (further lending credence to arguments that modern slavery is being practiced by the Communist Chinese authorities) and China's Alibaba offering facial recognition software to clients which can identify the face of a Uighur person and consequently track individual members of this ethnic group who face wholesale persecution over in Xinjiang and associated regions of Mainland China.  While there are serious fears that Beijing wishes to turn Hong Kong into another Xinjiang, can anyone really see such things happening in this part of the world (in at least the short term)?       

 

Also, even while there are genuine worries that key Hong Kong sectors, including the judiciary, are becoming Mainlandized (something that's not helped by the Hong Kong government increasingly adopting "Mainland-speak" and staging oath-taking ceremonies for civil servants that look creepily authoritarian), there still are battles being won daily in court (and elsewhere).  For example, yesterday saw a social worker acquitted on the charge of obstructing police during a protest last year, with the presiding magistrate judging that the police officer who gave testimony in court was an unreliable witness.  In addition, on the previous day, another individual (presumed to be a pro-democracy protestor) was acquitted -- of charges of possessing items that could be used to "destroy or damage property" -- by a different magistrate after she, too, ruled that a police officer's testimony was untrustworthy.  

 

Okay, sure, the victories cited in the previous paragraph may seem on the small side.  But small things can lift up the spirit quite a bit.  And this perhaps especially when they give one the sense that there still is justice in the world, including that which could have come from on high: such as that involving the notorious Leticia Lee, who died yesterday after being infected by the Wuhan coronavirus, just four days after she went on Facebook to mock yet another Hong Konger for having gone into exile rather than face political persecution at home!