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Wynna Wong

Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, one of 47 Hong Kong opposition figures charged in the city’s largest national security case so far, has been released from prison after serving his sentence for conspiracy to commit subversion.
Sham and three others – Kinda Li Ka-tat, Roy Tam Hoi-pong and Henry Wong Pak-yu – were released early on Friday, a police source confirmed. They were the second batch of defendants in the high-profile case to complete their sentences.
Sham, 38, a former convenor of the now-defunct Civil Human Rights Front, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison in November 2024, with the time he spent in pre-trial detention also taken into account.
He was seen leaving Shek Pik Prison on Lantau Island under heavy police escort and also near his home in Jordan, where he reportedly arrived at around 6.30am.
Speaking to local media, Sham said he hoped to remember those who were “still suffering”, and that he would need time to figure out what the “new normal” was after four years away from society.
“I’m not sure if I am really a free man,” he said.
“My emotions are complicated … of course, there is some happiness here [about my release], but there are still many who are suffering, and I feel like I can’t be too joyful.”
He added that over the past four years many things had changed “outside” that he had not been aware of.
“I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels like today is my first day of understanding the world again,” Sham said.
“So, as for what I can do or should do in the future, or where the red line is, I feel like I need to explore and figure it out all over again.”
He said he had no plans to leave Hong Kong for the time being and that he was looking forward to spending time with his family again after four years of being apart.
Li, Tam and Wong, who are all former district councillors, were also released around the same time – Li and Wong from Stanley Prison and Tam from the Pik Uk Correctional Institution.


Their release followed that of four former Legislative Council members – Fan Kwok-wai, Claudia Mo Man-ching, Kwok Ka-ki and Jeremy Tam Man-ho – who were freed in late April, the first defendants to complete their sentences in the case.
Sham served as convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front for a year in 2015 and again from 2018 to late 2020, a period during which the organisation spearheaded many large-scale anti-government protests, including during the 2019 social unrest.
He also served as the external vice-chairman of the League of Social Democrats and was a district councillor for the Sha Tin Lek Yuen constituency before resigning in 2020.
The “Hong Kong 47” case is the biggest prosecution yet under the national security law that was imposed on the city by Beijing in June 2020 to quell the months-long anti-government movement.
Forty-five of the 47 opposition figures were earlier convicted of conspiracy to commit subversion for their roles in an unauthorised “primary” election held four years ago that was deemed to be part of a plot to overthrow the government.
Additional reporting by Connor Mycroft


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News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Sham, Kinda Li, Roy Tam and Henry Wong among second batch of defendants released after serving sentences under national security law


Sham, Kinda Li, Roy Tam and Henry Wong among second batch of defendants released after serving sentences under national security law.


Hong Kong national security law (NSL)

Legislative Council of Hong Kong

Hong Kong courts

China