I WASN’T EXPECTING THIS: Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy activists see convictions overturned.
Today, Judge Andrew Macrae reported that he and other judges on the Hong Kong Court of Appeal unanimously overruled the convictions against Hong Kong pro-democracy activists Jimmy Lai, Martin Lee, Margaret Ng, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung, Cyd Ho and Albert Ho for organising an unauthorised assembly in 2019. Their convictions for participating in an unauthorised assembly were upheld.
The written judgement from the Court of Appeal determined that to be an organiser of an assembly one must be responsible for or proactively plan and arrange an action. The judgement reads, “An inference that because they were at the front of the procession, they must have organised it… is not a realistic or suitable substitute for evidence that they were involved in its organisation.”
Hmm. That sounds more reasonable than some of our January 6 prosecutions, which is embarrassing.
Flashback: Jimmy Lai may yet outlast Hong Kong’s evil regime.