Overview

• On July 14 the Court of Appeal began ten days of hearings on appeals by 13 pro-democracy figures convicted for organising a 2020 unofficial primary under the national security law.
• Prosecutors concurrently challenged the lower court’s acquittal of lawyer Lawrence Lau from the original group of 47 defendants.
• Defendants include former lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung, Lam Cheuk-ting and Owen Chow, whose seven-year nine-month sentence is the harshest among those appealing.
• Several appellants have already spent over four years in detention ahead of their appeals.
• The United States, Britain and the European Union have criticised the case for undermining freedoms even as Hong Kong and Beijing authorities insist the trials were fair.