National security, murder and minority rights: a look back at Hong Kong’s year in court

The Post reviews the biggest cases of 2024, including the sentencing of 45 opposition figures and ‘Dragon Slaying’ bomb plotters

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People queue up to enter the West Kowloon Law Courts Building to hear Jimmy Lai’s national security trial in November. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 7:55pm, 24 Dec 2024

Hong Kong courts heard cases that made global headlines this year, including ones centred on national security involving prominent opposition politicians and the founder of one of the city’s biggest media outlets.

But it was not just security matters that gripped readers – details of a gruesome “exorcism” rocked the city, while minority housing rights scored a victory.

As 2024 draws to a close, the Post reviews the most significant court cases of the year.

45 ex-opposition figures tried

Hong Kong’s largest national security trial to date came to a close this year after 45 former opposition politicians and activists were convicted of subversion under the Beijing-imposed national security law. The sentences were handed down more than three years after the initial charges were issued on February 28, 2021.

In the 118-day trial, only two ex-district councillors – barrister Lawrence Lau Wai-chung and social worker Lee Yue-shun – were acquitted in May. However, prosecutors have filed an appeal over Lau’s acquittal.

Former legal academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting, 60, received the heaviest sentence of 10 years for masterminding the unauthorised “primary” election by the opposition camp. The remaining defendants, most of whom were candidates in the primary, were jailed for 50 to 93 months.

Judges had earlier ruled that the unofficial poll served to maximise the chances for the opposition camp to seize control of the legislature in September 2020, turning it into a “lethal constitutional weapon” that could bring down the government.