Hong Kong court to hear appeals by jailed democracy campaigners
Appeals will be heard from 13 democracy campaigners who were jailed for subversion in 2024.
A Hong Kong court will hear appeals starting on July 14 from 13 democracy campaigners who were jailed for subversion in 2024 during the city's largest national security trial.
They were among 45 opposition figures, including some of Hong Kong's best-known democracy activists, who were sentenced in November 2024 over a 2020 informal primary election that authorities deemed a subversive plot.
Critics including the United States, Britain and the European Union said the case showed how a Beijing-imposed national security law has eroded freedoms and quashed peaceful opposition in Hong Kong.
Ex-lawmakers 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung, Lam Cheuk-ting, Helena Wong and Raymond Chan are among those contesting their convictions and sentences in hearings that are scheduled to last 10 days.
Owen Chow, a 28-year-old activist who was sentenced to seven years and nine months in jail – the harshest penalty among the 13 – has also lodged an appeal.
Some of the appellants have already spent more than four years behind bars.
Amnesty International's China director Sarah Brooks said the appeal will be a 'pivotal test' for free expression in the Chinese finance hub.
'Only by overturning these convictions can Hong Kong's courts begin to restore the city's global standing as a place where rights are respected and where people are allowed to peacefully express their views without fear of arrest,' Ms Brooks said.
Morning raids
Prosecutors will concurrently challenge on July 14 the lower court's acquittal of lawyer Lawrence Lau, one of two people found not guilty from an original group of 47 accused.
Activist Tam Tak-chi, who pleaded guilty in the subversion case, had also indicated he would appeal against his sentence but withdrew.
Beijing has remoulded Hong Kong in its authoritarian image after imposing a sweeping national security law in 2020 following months of huge, and sometimes violent, pro-democracy demonstrations.
Authorities arrested figures from a broad cross-section of the city's opposition in morning raids in 2021, a group later dubbed the 'Hong Kong 47'.
The group, aged between 27 and 69, included democratically elected lawmakers and district councillors, as well as unionists, academics and others with political stances ranging from modest reformists to radical localists.
They were accused of organising or taking part in an unofficial primary election, which aimed to improve the chances of pro-democracy parties of winning a majority in the legislature.
The activists had hoped to force the government to accede to demands such as universal suffrage by threatening to indiscriminately veto the budget.
Three senior judges handpicked by the government to try security cases said the plan would have caused a 'constitutional crisis'.
Beijing and Hong Kong officials have defended the national security law as being necessary to restore order following the 2019 protests.
Opposition party the League of Social Democrats – co-founded by Leung – announced its disbandment in June , citing 'immense political pressure'.
Eight of the jailed campaigners, including journalist and lawmaker Claudia Mo and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham, have been released in recent weeks after completing their sentences. AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
20 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Syria says pulling troops from Druze heartland after US request, Israeli strikes
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Syrian security forces walking along a street in the southern Druze city of Sweida on July 16. DAMASCUS - Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on July 16, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city. The United States, which is close allies with Israel and has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria, said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, and urged 'all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made'. The Syrian government earlier announced a new ceasefire in Sweida that would bring a halt to military operations there, after clashes that a war monitor said had left more than 300 people dead since July 13. The Syrian army 'has begun withdrawing from the city of Sweida in implementation of the terms of the adopted agreement, after the end of the sweep of the city for outlaw groups', a defence ministry statement said. The statement did not mention any withdrawal of other government security forces, which had deployed to the city on July 15 with the stated aim of overseeing a previous truce agreed with Druze community leaders following days of deadly fighting with local Bedouin tribes. That ceasefire appeared to have little effect, however, with witnesses reporting that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the violence in Sweida province had left more than 300 people dead, including government forces, local fighters and 27 Druze civilians killed in 'summary executions'. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Over 600 Telegram groups in Singapore selling, advertising vapes removed by HSA Singapore 2 weeks' jail for man caught smuggling over 1,800 vapes and pods into Singapore Singapore Jail for man who fatally hit his daughter, 2, while driving van without licence Sport 'Like being in a washing machine with 40 deg C water': Open water swimmers brave challenging conditions Singapore Primary 1 registration: 38 primary schools to conduct ballot in Phase 2A Singapore ComfortDelGro to introduce new taxi cancellation, waiting fee policy Business Cathay Cineplexes gets fresh demands to pay up $3.3m debt for Century Square, Causeway Point outlets Singapore Countering misinformation requires both laws and access to trusted news sources: Josephine Teo The Syrian presidency vowed to investigate the 'heinous acts' in Sweida and to punish 'all those proven to be involved'. Damascus strikes Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible. Following the fall of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the Israeli military took control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria. After carrying out air strikes in Sweida province earlier this week in what it said was defence of the Druze, Israel launched a series of attacks on the capital Damascus on July 16. More on this topic Israel launches heavy airstrikes in Damascus, vowing to protect Syria's Druze community AFP images showed the side of a building in the defence ministry complex in ruins after one strike, as smoke billowed over the area. Israel said it had also struck a 'military target' in the area of the presidential palace, while a Syrian interior ministry source reported strikes outside the capital in 'the vicinity of the Mazzeh (military) airport'. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to 'leave the Druze in Sweida alone', and threatened to unleash 'painful blows' until government forces pulled back. Syria's foreign ministry slammed the attacks as a 'dangerous escalation', while Israel's military chief insisted his forces were 'acting with responsibility, restraint and sound judgment'. The Syrian health ministry said that at least three people were killed and 34 wounded in the strikes on Damascus. Halt to Sweida operations Announcing the new ceasefire on July 16, Syria's interior ministry said there would be a 'total and immediate halt to all military operations', as well as the formation of a committee comprising government representatives and Druze spiritual leaders to supervise its implementation. An AFP correspondent in Sweida, however, reported hearing gunfire in the city even after the announcement. In a video carried by state television, Sheikh Youssef Jarboua, one of Syria's main Druze spiritual leaders, read out the 10 points of the accord, which also includes 'the full integration of the province' of Sweida into the Syrian state. Until now, Druze areas have been controlled by fighters from the minority community. The latest fighting was the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead. The clashes between the Bedouin and the Druze that first prompted the government deployment were triggered by the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant, according to the Observatory. The two groups have been at loggerheads for decades. The Islamist authorities have had strained relations with Syria's patchwork of religious and ethnic minorities, and have been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to protect them. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed concern on July 16 about the Israeli bombings, adding 'we want it to stop'. A State Department spokesperson said Washington was also asking Syria to 'withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate'. Mr Rubio later announced on X that all sides had 'agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end'. 'This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do,' he wrote, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement. AFP
Straits Times
20 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Coffee Meets Bagel's Singpass check: Why I'll swipe right on that
Find out what's new on ST website and app. On June 9, Coffee Meets Bagel started using Singpass authentication to verify its local users. I knew I would probably have to kiss many frogs before I found my prince, but I did not expect to have to scrutinise if the frogs were real in the first place. Roland looked and sounded like a dream – 39 years old, a corporate lawyer with a start-up on the side, pictures of him in a fancy car and at a yacht party enjoying cocktails, and a bio so polished it could have been written by a branding consultant. But the scripted perfection felt off. In our text conversations, his responses were stilted and unnatural. His favourite food was chicken rice, and his favourite place to catch a sunset was at Marina Bay Sands. His poison of choice at a bar? The Singapore Sling. In the four days I chatted with him, every day on the dot at noon, he would ask if I had eaten. Every night at 10.30pm, I would get a good night message wishing me sweet dreams. Days later, his profile was quietly deleted. Had I been romanced by an artificial intelligence-generated Romeo? I would never know – but I had a strong suspicion that I was. Profiles like Roland's are becoming more common – and more deceptive. With the rise of generative AI, it is no longer far-fetched to wonder if I am flirting with a bot. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Over 600 Telegram groups in Singapore selling, advertising vapes removed by HSA Singapore 2 weeks' jail for man caught smuggling over 1,800 vapes and pods into Singapore Singapore Jail for man who fatally hit his daughter, 2, while driving van without licence Sport 'Like being in a washing machine with 40 deg C water': Open water swimmers brave challenging conditions Singapore Primary 1 registration: 38 primary schools to conduct ballot in Phase 2A Singapore ComfortDelGro to introduce new taxi cancellation, waiting fee policy Business Cathay Cineplexes gets fresh demands to pay up $3.3m debt for Century Square, Causeway Point outlets Singapore Countering misinformation requires both laws and access to trusted news sources: Josephine Teo One dating app has moved to stamp out fake dating profiles. On June 9, Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) started using Singpass authentication to verify its local users. The one-time verification process involves the CMB app retrieving users' NRIC number or Foreign Identification Number, date of birth, marital status and gender from government records. With Singpass verification, users like me gain rare certainty in a world of fakes: that the person I'm chatting with is who they say they are – not married, not lying about their age, and not some bot. That can only rebuild trust in an increasingly complex digital world, where tricksters with nefarious purposes have more advanced tools to obfuscate their identities. A Bloomberg story in 2024 found that fraudsters are using AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini to create fake dating profiles. In recent times, it is also becoming increasingly common to see profiles with pictures that are either a little too perfectly edited or look AI-generated. I hesitate to swipe on such profiles – I am not sure if someone is leveraging AI to bolster their attractiveness; or if a scammer or bot is behind such accounts. Even without AI, fake and misleading accounts have been a problem on dating apps. When I first downloaded dating apps three years ago after I was fresh out of a decade-long relationship, I was ready for awkward first dates, rejection and even ghosting. Instead, I found married men with blurred profile pictures looking for a one-night stand, scammers impersonating popular local influencers, and supposed rich Chinese businessmen a little too eager to promote their investments. My friend was shattered when she eventually discovered that a man she had been seeing from a dating app for three months was in fact six years older than he claimed, and was married. A YouGov survey published in February 2024 found that three-quarters of Singaporeans have never used a dating app before. When asked why, 27 per cent said that they were concerned about fake or misleading dating app profiles. Apart from CMB, other major dating apps commonly used in Singapore have some way to go towards addressing this concern. OkCupid, Hinge and Tinder will match a user's recorded video selfies along with their profile pictures. But this only proves a person's identity, and does not verify age or marital status. As at June 10, Bumble has allowed for identity verification with Government-issued IDs in Singapore, but the move is optional. In contrast, CMB users who choose not to verify their identities with Singpass authentication risk losing out on connections because verified users have the option to filter out unverified profiles. This elevates CMB above its competitors, further bolstering its reputation as a dating app for those looking for a serious relationship. The benefits of CMB's move go beyond restoring trust and confidence in dating apps. More crucially, it helps to promote safety. CMB's head of trust and safety Rachel Tee previously told ST that with government-backed verification, the platform will be able to significantly reduce the number of scam profiles that require manual moderation. This means that CMB will have more bandwidth to deal with more serious cases such as harassment, inappropriate messages or even offline misconduct. I have heard many anecdotal accounts from friends who have received unsolicited nude images from people they met on dating apps. Another had to deal with constant calls and messages from a man who could not handle rejection. There are also more serious cases that have gone before the courts. In August 2024, 25 year-old Terrell See was jailed for threatening to distribute intimate videos of a woman he had received while they were chatting on a dating app. In November 2022, 25-year-old Sim Bing Rui was handed a jail term after he threatened to distribute explicit content of a teenager , after he created a fictitious persona on OkCupid and used it to trick her into engaging in a sex act with him. In cases of offline misconduct, victims may not have crucial information about their perpetrator, like their full name or NRIC, especially if they are meeting for a first date. With such information, CMB will be able to assist the police in their investigations. While some users may find the move excessive and have legitimate privacy concerns, they should keep in mind that the application is asking for four fields of basic information. CMB does not have access to all information about a person in government records, including address, educational qualification, or income level. This is a good balance struck between ensuring user safety and maintaining privacy. Of course, the platform must also do its part to ensure data privacy and cyber security to guard against data leaks. CMB's Ms Tee said the company employs robust cyber security measures and partners with cloud computing service Amazon Web Services to ensure that all information is stored within a secure, encrypted infrastructure. In an era when deception is easier than ever, holding users accountable is not just helpful – it is essential. For that alone, Singpass verification is a green flag. 10/10, I'd swipe right.
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Pro-Russian bots target Ukrainians under occupation: Report
Find out what's new on ST website and app. People riding past a banner promoting service in the Russian armed forces, in Yalta, on the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea, Ukraine, in April 2025. LONDON - Pro-Russian bot networks have targeted Ukrainians in Moscow-controlled regions, posting thousands of comments on social media criticising Kyiv and praising the occupiers, analysts said on July 16. Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four regions since its 2022 full-scale invasion – in addition to Crimea, which it invaded in 2014. It has set up new media in these regions, including television channels. Pro-Russian bots posted on Telegram groups used by Ukrainians in occupied regions from 2024 onwards, said a think-tank report entitled 'Digital occupation'. It was released by the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, an American think-tank, and OpenMinds cognitive defence tech company, which works with governments including Ukraine. It said the bot comments were aimed at 'manufacturing an artificial consensus in favour of Russia' in occupied areas. Telegram is widely used by Russians and Ukrainians to follow news. It allows users to post regular updates on channels, whose subscribers can comment. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Over 600 Telegram groups in Singapore selling, advertising vapes removed by HSA Singapore 2 weeks' jail for man caught smuggling over 1,800 vapes and pods into Singapore Singapore Jail for man who fatally hit his daughter, 2, while driving van without licence Sport 'Like being in a washing machine with 40 deg C water': Open water swimmers brave challenging conditions Singapore Primary 1 registration: 38 primary schools to conduct ballot in Phase 2A Singapore ComfortDelGro to introduce new taxi cancellation, waiting fee policy Business Cathay Cineplexes gets fresh demands to pay up $3.3m debt for Century Square, Causeway Point outlets Singapore Countering misinformation requires both laws and access to trusted news sources: Josephine Teo Short-lived 'disposable' bots posed as genuine people commenting on posts while often using meaningless names, the report found. These bots 'did not engage in actual discussion' with others and some messages made little sense, suggesting the use of generative AI, the report said. One post said: 'Lord, how wonderful that Putin advocates for the use of peaceful weapons'. But the comments presented a 'unified message of a strong and successful Russia and a corrupt Ukraine,' the report said. Main topics included support for Russian President Vladimir Putin – mentioned over 5,000 times – and 'admiration for the Russian army', analysts found. By far the most common theme was criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian leadership – in over 48,000 comments posted between January 2024 and April 2025. Accusations included corruption, drug use and claims of illegitimacy or tyranny, the report said. This was followed by broader criticism of Ukrainian authorities and actions on the front – 13,500 comments – and criticism of the collective West – 11,798 comments. These comments could be used to 'manipulate the perception of public opinion within the occupied territories,' the report said, and as 'justification for Russian control' in potential peace talks. 'A high volume of comments expressing a certain viewpoint can create the impression that it represents the majority opinion in a community, regardless of whether that is actually the case,' it said. AFP
