Il Messaggiere - Acquitted 'Hong Kong 47' defendant sees freedom as responsibility

Former district councillor and street dancer Lee Yue-shun is one of only two people to have walked away from a national security law trial.

On Tuesday, 45 of his co-defendants were handed prison terms of up to 10 years for subversion.

It is Hong Kong's largest prosecution under its 2020 security law, imposed by Beijing after huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before.

"I find the situation (of being acquitted) quite hard to understand," Lee told AFP in a series of interviews ahead of the sentencing.

"I think (the acquittal) gave me more responsibility -- how can I make better use of the freedom I have not lost," the 31-year-old added.

On Tuesday, Lee arrived outside court at 4 am (2000 GMT) to try and get a public seat.

"I come here today mainly (out of) a duty to show my concern for this important court case as a citizen," he told AFP.

"I also want more people to notice the development and the conclusion of the case."

- 'Intention to subvert' -

The 47 were charged after holding an unofficial election primary in July 2020, in a bid to make a shortlist aimed at gaining a pro-democracy majority in the legislature.

If victorious, they planned to force the government to meet the 2019 protesters' demands -- including universal suffrage -- by threatening vetoes of the city budget.

Judges ruled they would have created "a constitutional crisis", and 45 were convicted of subversion.

But Lee and another defendant, veteran lawyer Lawrence Lau, were acquitted.

Judges said they could not be sure Lee "was a party to the Scheme" nor that he "had the intention to subvert".

Until the duo's release in May, national security cases prosecuted under the 2020 law had a 100 percent conviction rate.

While Hong Kong's legislature has been purged of opposition and scores of civil society groups have shuttered since the law's passage, authorities maintain it restored order and stability after months of unrest.

"We have lost a lot of freedoms... All I can say is that the acquittal means I lost one less," Lee said.

- Social justice vision -

Lee jokingly referred to himself as "a loser" -- he struggled at school and failed to get into university first time round.

"But Hong Kong gave me a vision," he said, and he decided to pursue a career as a social worker.

He first dipped his toes into politics as a student, working as a campaign helper for a pro-democracy party.

Lee soon caught the party's eye as a candidate to attract young voters, and ran for district council at the height of the 2019 protests.

He was put forward in the election primary almost at the last minute.

He lost, but at dawn on January 6, 2021, was woken up by banging on his door.

It was the national security police.

"I couldn't make sense of it at that time. I asked if many people were arrested. They said yes," Lee recalled.

- 'Come what may' -

Lee was luckier than the others -- he was granted bail after two weeks, whereas most of the 47 have been detained since that day.

Even so, stringent bail conditions kept him "trapped" in Hong Kong for nearly 1,200 days.

His passport was seized, and he was banned from speaking publicly in any way deemed to endanger national security.

"Over these three years -- which I would describe as a test -- I had been emphasising this: I would not let my life be destroyed," Lee said.

"Until the last moment before the ruling, I had been thinking: 'Come what may, there are still things I want to carry on'."

Lee threw himself into street dance and boxing, and appeared at every trial day in carefully coordinated outfits.

He also completed a law programme, with his final thesis analysing the conspiracy charge in common law -- using his own case as an example.

Two weeks after his acquittal, Lee retrieved his passport from the court, and in early July, he renewed his social worker licence.

"I will now make more active and better use of this basic right (of movement) to further develop myself... to encourage more and different people here," he said.

I.Barone--IM