The trial of 47 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong’s primary election case began on Feb. 6, and all were charged with “conspiracy to subvert state power” under the National Security Law for holding an unofficial primary election. In setting its case, the prosecution played a secretly filmed video of a primary election coordination meeting, causing gasps of dismay in court.
On Feb. 7, the second day of the primary trial, the prosecution alleged that defendant Benny Tai, a well-known scholar, and the District Council held several coordination meetings between February 2020 and July 2020 on their plan to hold a primary election to discuss the framework of the primary election with all the candidates, focusing on the common goal of winning a majority of seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo) and to gain agreement that those candidates who lost in the primary could not run in the LegCo election, to be held later in the year.
