It's all a bit Topsy Turvy here.
This was a bail hearing for Lee Cheuk-yan a couple of days ago. The NSL trial has yet to start.
The judge denied bail and one of his reasonings was the "strong evidence" against Lee.
Before the case has even been heard!
A Hong Kong court has refused to grant bail to veteran pro-democracy activist Lee Cheuk-yan pending his trial under the Beijing-imposed national security law. It came after a judge ruled there was insufficient grounds for believing that the former leader of the defunct Tiananmen crackdown vigil...
hongkongfp.com
And in the case against Chow Hang-tung, also with the Hong Kong Alliance, it's even weirder.
The Alliance's Committee members are charged with "acting as the agent for a foreign principal". But the prosecution have redacted much of the evidence against them on National Security grounds (the judges will see it [and obviously the prosecution,] but
not the defendants
nor anyone else). The "foreign principal" is identified only as Organisation 4.
Chow, a barrister representing herself, has argued that in order to effectively defend against such a charge, it's reasonable for the prosecution to disclose the identity of said foreign principal. How can you mount a defense if you don't know specifically what your accused of? It seems reasonable but ... No. It's National Security innit?!
It is alleged that, a few years back, they received a one-off donation from this shadowy Organisation 4, in the princely sum of HK$ 20,000 (GBP ~2,000). A date was given for the donation.
Doing some sleuthing, Chow established that the only donation to the Alliance of that sum on the date concerned, was from the Japan Branch of the Federation for a Democratic China - a small organisation in Japan. This is in the context of their total, annual donations (mostly smallish amounts via crowdfunding,) averaging between HKD 2 million - 3 million. So this HKD 20,000 is a relatively minuscule, one-off sum.
The thing is, this was a donation from an organisation that the Alliance has never worked with or had any association with, other than saying thanks, of course. It was made as a donation towards the purchase of a property costing HKD 8 million (to be used as a June 4th museum - subsequently shut down by the National Security police). The donation was worth 1 / 400th of the cost building.
And this is acting as the agent for a shadowy foreign principal, "Organization 4", in a cloak-and-dagger trial, swathed in secrecy due to national security, denied a jury trial and thus to be overseen by three CCP-hand-picked National Security judges.
Really?
It's all very perplexing.
Worth reading the article.
Accusations that the organiser of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigil acted as a foreign agent amounts to “political persecution,” the group’s former leader Chow Hang-tung has testified during a national security trial. Chow, who was the vice chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of...
hongkongfp.com
Woof
news.rthk.hk
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