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Danny Mok

Connor Mycroft

Four former Hong Kong lawmakers convicted of subversion in a case involving 47 activists were released on Tuesday after completing their jail terms, becoming the first batch of defendants to be freed following the city’s largest and longest-running national security trial.
Gary Fan Kwok-wai, 58, Kwok Ka-ki, 63, Jeremy Tam Man-ho, 49, and Claudia Mo Man-ching, 68, walked out of prison after serving four years and two months behind bars.
Fan, accompanied by police, was seen returning to his home in Tseung Kwan O early in the morning after he was freed from Shek Pik Prison on Lantau Island.
“[I am] going home to reunite with my family now. Thanks for the care from Hong Kong people and the media,” Fan said as he headed home.

Mo’s family confirmed to the Post that she had returned home, with a source saying the rest were also released in the morning.
“I am very pleased that she is home, but she is resting so I cannot really say any more,” Mo’s husband, Philip Bowring, told reporters who approached his residence.
Asked whether Mo would provide a few words to the press, Bowring said she would not be giving any interviews for the time being.
“I am sorry about that, but as you know the circumstances, so that is all I can say,” he said.

Sources had suggested the four, who were sentenced last November and had been in custody since March 2021, would “remain low-key and decline media interviews” after their release.
Bowring later added that Mo would need time to get “used to life again in the outside world”, and that they might visit their grandchildren in England later in the year.


Mo, Kwok, Tam and Fan were among 45 former politicians and activists sentenced for conspiracy to subvert state power under the Beijing-decreed national security law for their involvement in a legislative “primary” election in 2020 that formed part of a plot to overthrow the government.
The four pleaded guilty and received the lightest jail term of the defendants. Judges gave them a one-third discount for their early guilty plea and additional reductions for their past public service and lack of knowledge of the law.
But they did not have their sentence cut by a third as allowed under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.

The ordinance, mandated by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, stipulates that a defendant convicted of national security offences “must not be granted remission” unless the commissioner was satisfied the move would not compromise national security.
The High Court earlier found the unofficial poll, aimed at boosting the opposition camp’s prospects of winning a controlling majority in the legislature, was part of a bid to “undermine, destroy or overthrow” authorities.
The judges said the conspiracy, if successful, would have seriously interfered with, disrupted or undermined the government’s functioning due to the substantial harm to the “power and authority of the government and the chief executive”.

Thirty-two of the 47 defendants charged with conspiring to subvert state power had been remanded in custody since March 2021, spending nearly four years behind bars before the court handed down the sentences last year.
The trial for the 16 who chose to fight the charges began in February 2023 and lasted 10 months.
Former legal academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting, labelled the mastermind of the subversion plot and slapped with the heaviest sentence of 10 years, will spend another eight years in jail as he was previously imprisoned for a total of 26 months in two separate cases. The other defendants, most of whom were candidates in the primary, were jailed for terms ranging from four years and two months to seven years and nine months.
Two of the 47 were cleared of their charges, with the government lodging an appeal over one of the acquittals.


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Hong Kong national security law (NSL)

Hong Kong 47: first 4 subversion offenders released from prison

Four former Hong Kong lawmakers convicted of subversion have been freed after serving prison sentences of more than four years each. Photo: Sun Yeung

Gary Fan (left, pictured in 2019) has returned home after being freed on Tuesday. Photo: Nora Tam

Claudia Mo (pictured in 2019) will not give any interviews for the time being, according to her husband. Photo: May Tse

Jeremy Tam (pictured in 2016) is among the four subversion offenders released on Tuesday. Photo: Dickson Lee

Kwok Ka-ki (pictured in 2018) has been freed after being jailed for four years and two months. Photo: Nora Tam

4 convicted in Hong Kong 47 trial to be freed on April 29 at earliest: sources

Former lawmaker Gary Fan (left) appear at the Court of Final Appeal in Central in 2019. Photo: Nora Tam

Former lawmaker Claudia Mo is among a group of four set to be release as early as April 29. Photo: Sam Tsang

Hong Kong 47: ex-lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting and 2 others lodge appeals

Former Hong Kong lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting. Photo: May Tse

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Hong Kong

Politics

Claudia Mo’s husband, Philip Bowring, says she needs time to get ‘used to life’, adding they may visit grandchildren in England later in year


Claudia Mo’s husband, Philip Bowring, says she needs time to get ‘used to life’, adding they may visit grandchildren in England later in year.


Hong Kong courts

Hong Kong politics

Hong Kong protests