Legislators are entitled to prevent the passage of government budgets and bills to achieve political aims, lawyers representing 11 Hong Kong opposition figures have said, as they seek to overturn convictions for conspiracy to subvert state power following the city’s largest national security trial.
Legal counsel on Monday urged an appellate court to refrain from adjudicating on “political matters”, saying that any “peaceful” attempt to force the government to accede to a political agenda should be allowed in a democratic society.
They also challenged the trial court’s interpretation of the national security law in the high-profile case involving 47 activists and contended that the exercise of lawmakers’ veto powers could not amount to “unlawful means” that enabled a subversive act.
More than 100 police officers were stationed at West Kowloon Court for the first oral hearing in the case’s appeal proceedings.
Three Court of First Instance judges last year convicted 14 of 16 defendants who denied plotting to paralyse the government through their involvement in an unofficial legislative “primary” election in July 2020. The trial ran for 118 days from February to December 2023.
The judges had earlier found the primary to be part of a wider plot to “undermine, destroy or overthrow” the city government.
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