Hong Kong judges dismiss plea to spare AbouThai founder jail time over subversion case

A three-judge panel overseeing Hong Kong’s first subversion trial has dismissed a request to spare a defendant turned prosecution witness jail time even as he deplored “foreign forces” and the media for “messing up society” amid the 2019 protests.

The three High Court judges adjourned the sentencing of 45 opposition politicians and activists under the Beijing-decreed national security law, after the last of the convicted defendants, former social worker Hendrick Lui Chi-hang and merchant Mike Lam King-nam, made mitigation pleas at West Kowloon Court on Tuesday.

Lam, the founder of Thai grocery chain AbouThai, was the only defendant to ask for a community service order in lieu of prison for his role in an unofficial legislative primary election in July 2020.

The judges, all hand-picked by the city leader to oversee national security cases, concluded the unofficial poll was part of a scheme to create a constitutional crisis by indiscriminately vetoing the government budgets and forcing authorities to accede to protesters’ demands.

Defence counsel Alex Fan Hoi-kit urged the court to take into account Lam’s limited involvement in the plot, the assistance he rendered to authorities and the pressure he endured as a prosecution witness during the trial.