Former HK Alliance leaders jailed for up to 7 years and 3 months

A Hong Kong court on Friday jails three former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China for up to seven years and three months for inciting subversion. The court also fines the HK Alliance 1.5 million dollars to be paid within three months.

The sentencing resumes at the West Kowloon Law Courts. Lee Cheuk-yan's wife, Elizabeth Tang, arrives for the hearing.

Appearing before a three-judge panel,  Lee receives a jail sentence of seven years, Albert Ho five years and two months, and Chow Hang-tung seven years and three months.  

In the reasons for sentence, the judges say the trio's incitement to subversion offence is of a "serious nature," adopting a starting point of seven years and six months for each of them. The court states the Alliance had persisted in and promoted its Five-Action Agenda, including "end one-party dictatorship."  The three organisers promoted the agenda through multiple activities and channels even after the National Security Law implementation. The court says the convicted's "culpability was essentially the same and on par with each other."  

For Ho, the court reduces his sentence by 22 months for his guilty plea because it came after the committal proceedings and the listing, while his health condition was not a sufficient factor for sentence reduction.  The court gives a three-month discretionary discount to Ho and Lee in light of their more than two decades of public service. Noting the repeated delays of the trial, which would have impacted the convicted's psychological stress, the court offers another three-month discretionary discount for each of them.

As for the fate of the Pillar of Shame, the court says it will determine the object's ownership at another time after consulting with all parties.