Hong Kong’s largest nationwide safety legislation trial opened on Monday with 47 of town’s most distinguished pro-democracy activists going through as much as life imprisonment in a landmark case that might spell the top of the territory’s as soon as vibrant political opposition.

The defendants, who embrace a few of Hong Kong’s highest-profile politicians and campaigners, have been arrested in January 2021 within the single largest police raid below the nationwide safety legislation. A lot of the defendants have spent greater than two years in pretrial detention after being denied bail.

Critics have described the arrests as a politically motivated campaign to wipe out Hong Kong’s main pro-democracy events and eradicate opposition voices, a part of a wider crackdown on the territory’s freedoms and civil society within the wake of anti-government protests in 2019.

The trial additionally comes as Hong Kong’s authorities launches an initiative to revive its ailing economic system and lure again worldwide enterprise after three years of pandemic restrictions and protests that battered its worldwide fame.

The 47 defendants embrace activist Joshua Wong, AFP journalist-turned-lawmaker Claudia Mo, social activist and League of Social Democrats co-founder “Lengthy Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and former BBC Chinese language journalist Gwyneth Ho.

They have been charged with conspiring to subvert state energy below the sweeping safety legislation by both organising or collaborating in an unofficial main election among the many opposition camp in July 2020. Greater than 600,000 folks forged their votes within the ballot, which the prosecution says was an try and “paralyse” Hong Kong’s authorities by successful management of the legislature, which is now completely occupied by pro-Beijing events.

Beijing immediately imposed the nationwide safety legislation on Hong Kong in 2020 within the wake of the protests, criminalising broadly outlined crimes together with terrorism, secession, subversion and collusion with overseas powers. The transfer has reverberated broadly by means of civil society, the authorized sector and the training system, stamping out dissent.

Sixteen of the defendants, together with Leung and Ho, pleaded not responsible throughout Monday’s listening to. “I’ve dedicated no crime,” Leung informed the court docket. Thirty-one others pleaded both responsible on Monday or in earlier proceedings. No less than 90 days have been earmarked for the non-jury trial.

Three members from Leung’s LSD, one of many final remaining energetic opposition factions, known as for the defendants’ launch exterior the courtroom on Monday earlier than being dispersed by police.

Thomas Kellogg, govt director of Georgetown College’s Heart for Asian Regulation, described the trial as having “the entire hallmarks of being a politically motivated prosecution of town’s mainstream political opposition”.

“This case is critical for what it says about human rights in Hong Kong,” he mentioned. “The truth that a number of dozen high opposition politicians might be quickly headed to jail . . . speaks all too clearly in regards to the harm that has been carried out to Hong Kong’s once-vibrant civic life.”

The case has stoked tensions between China and the west. The US, UK and EU have beforehand denounced the fees, and diplomats from consulates in Hong Kong have attended pretrial hearings. They have been additionally current on Monday.

Hong Kong is predicted to attempt one other high-profile nationwide safety case this yr in opposition to media mogul and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai in September. Lai, 75, faces fees of overseas collusion for his position as founding father of the defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Every day.

He has been in jail since December 2020 and was sentenced in December 2022 to 5 years and 9 months in jail on fraud fees associated to his media firm, along with 20 months for unlawful meeting over the protests.

Analysts have warned that the safety legislation trials will put strain on Hong Kong’s widespread legislation system, one of many final foundations that distinguishes the territory from mainland China, the place the ruling communist celebration influences the courts.

China’s high legislative physique final month mentioned that John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief, may stop defendants in nationwide safety circumstances from hiring overseas attorneys, an unprecedented intrusion into the appropriate to illustration. Lee had sought Beijing’s intervention to stop Lai from hiring a British barrister after the federal government misplaced an enchantment bid to town’s apex court docket.

Greater than 200 folks, together with members of the family and buddies of the activists together with well-wishers, lined as much as attend the trial on Monday.

“My conscience has urged me to return and assist them . . . I’ve to remain true to myself,” mentioned Jerome Lau, 72, exterior the courtroom.

Extra reporting by Primrose Riordan in Hong Kong