The judiciary’s website on Sunday said the Court of Appeal’s hearing would start on July 14 and last for 10 days as 14 out of the 45 opposition figures sentenced to conspiring to subvert state power applied to appeal against their sentence, which ranged from six years and six months to seven years and nine months.
The court would also deal with the Department of Justice’s appeal against barrister Lawrence Lau Wai-chung, one of the two acquitted defendants.
Among the 14 opposition figures, 12 filed an appeal against both their convictions and sentences, including four former lawmakers: Lam Cheuk-ting and Helena Wong Pik-wan from the Democratic Party, Raymond Chan Chi-chuen and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.
The list also covers ex-district councillors Tat Cheng Tat-hung, Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying, Kalvin Ho Kai-ming and Michael Pang Cheuk-kei, as well as activists Owen Chow Ka-shing, Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam, Winnie Yu Wai-ming and Gordon Ng Ching-hang.
The remaining two, Tam Tak-chi and Wong Ji-yuet, only applied for leave to appeal their sentences.
All 14 activists were convicted last May and sentenced six months later.
Apart from two acquitted defendants, the remaining 31 out of the 47 prosecuted opposition figures in the case pleaded guilty before the start of the 118-day trial, which was the biggest prosecution under the national security law to date.
Former legal academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting was jailed for 10 years, receiving the heaviest penalty as he was deemed a “principal offender” of the subversion plot for initiating the unofficial election in July 2020 in the hopes of bringing down the government.
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