Love Conquers All

Elaine To and Henry Tong on their wedding day last August

This is Henry Tong Wai-hung, 39, and Elaine To, 42. They are such a cute couple. Both are into fitness and own a gym in Sheung Wan. They are also parents to three dogs.

Last July 28 they participated in an anti-government protest at Chater Garden in Central that later went towards the liaison office in Western district, but then were arrested on charges of rioting together with a teenager, Natalie Lee Yuen-yui near the protest site. If convicted, the maximum sentence is 10 years.

While Lee pleaded not guilty, Tong and To did as well, claiming they were there to provide first aid to those who were teargassed -- they said they were never on the front lines, nor did they act violently or illegally.

The couple helped people who were teargassed

The pair was shocked to be arrested and hoped to be out on bail in time for their wedding on August 4. They managed to get out in time and were registered at Cotton Tree Drive Marriage Registry.

She wore a short white dress, and white cardigan with white boots and a veil, and he a body tight shirt with a suit printed on it and shorts, and also boots.

Thinking the wedding would be just them and two witnesses, they were overwhelmed to see family, friends, media and strangers who came to support them.

"Although there are some obstacles in the road, I have finally become Mrs Tong. I will go through the upheaval with you," To said during the ceremony as she cried.

"It is not easy to find someone in life with the same ideals, values and willing to go through ups and downs with you in the time of chaos... I will continue to love you forever," Tong said before they kissed.

But they had the riot charge hanging over their heads for almost a year.

The newlyweds were overwhelmed by supporters

Their trial was supposed to start in March, but because of the pandemic it was postponed. The actual trial took 20 days instead of the estimated 10.

During this time they also lost about two-thirds of their income at the gym because of political differences with clients, though the remaining ones have been very supportive.

In the days leading up to the verdict, they prepared for the worst, deciding who would look after the dogs, passing ownership of the gym to a friend and packing up their things.

Today was the verdict -- they were acquitted on the charge of rioting, though they were found guilty of a lesser offense of possessing a wireless radio (walkie talkies) without a permit and fined HK$1,300 each.

The student Lee was also found not guilty of rioting.

Prosecutors conceded they did not have enough direct evidence of what exactly the three defendants did at the time of the riot, despite months of investigations.

Their case was solely based on circumstantial evidence, such as the defendants' wearing black clothing, protective gear, and attempting to flee from the police.

To and Tong during one of their trial dates

District judge Anthony Kwok Kai-on found the trio not guilty of riot or the lesser, alternative charge of unlawful assembly because there was no evidence they had assembled together in common purpose with the protesters on Des Voeux Road West, where a riot broke out at 7.02pm.

However he did believe there was sufficient evidence the couple was providing first aid to people, as there were medical supplies in their belongings, and there was also CCTV footage of them treating the student Lee after she was teargassed.

To and Tong cried and hugged each other. Emerging out of the courthouse, Tong bowed to the media and supporters shouted protest slogans.

"We will not celebrate until after all who were arrested have received their fair verdicts," Tong told reporters.

At Instagram pier with their three dogs

As they were leaving, he shouted through his mask, "Hongkongers, add oil! Keep it up everyone!"

To, Tong and Lee were the first to be charged with rioting; with these verdicts, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the cases are handled.

It's interesting that despite the prosecutor's circumstantial evidence, the judge did not throw out these cases. Perhaps it was a hint to the Department of Justice that they had better have solid evidence for conviction before wasting the court's time?

Donald Tsang Trial Finally Starts

Donald Tsang arrives at High Court this morning with his wife Selina

We are finally here -- the start of former Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's trial for corruption charges.

For the occasion he wore a suit and his signature bow tie with his wife Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei by his side and they arrived at the High Court in Admiralty at 8.15am, over an hour before his trial was supposed to start.

In court, Tsang pleaded not guilty in a firm voice in Cantonese to each of the three charges he faces related to a three-storey rental penthouse in Shenzhen.

Tsang allegedly had dealings with Bill Wong (above)

Two of the charges are for misconduct of public office and one of a chief executive accepting an advantage, which allegedly occurred during 2010 and 2012. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.

The 72-year-old Tsang is the highest ranking official to ever face a criminal trial in Hong Kong's history.

In the first charge, Tsang is alleged as chief executive and head of the Executive Council, to engage in wilful misconduct by failing to disclose and conceal his dealings with businessman Bill Wong Cho-bau regarding the penthouse. Wong was a major shareholder of radio station Wave Media, which was later renamed Digital Broadcasting Corp, or DBC.

Tsang allegedly "approved in principle and formally granted" applications by Wong's company for a digital broadcasting license, the surrender of its AM radio license and the appointment of Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung as DBC director and board chairman without disclosing his dealings with Wong to Exco.

The second charge alleges Tsang recommended interior designer Barrie Ho Chow-lai for nomination under the city's honours and awards system between December 2010 and July 2011.

Tsang allegedly nominated Barrie Ho for a medal of honour

Under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, the corruption charge accuses Tsang of accepting an advantage -- namely the refurbishment and redecoration of the penthouse -- as an inducement or reward to perform an act as chief executive.

A jury of nine will decide Tsang's fate in this trial that is expected to last 20 days.

A Heavy Price for Free Speech

Pu Zhiqiang will be released soon, but cannot practice law again

Human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was handed a three-year suspended jail sentence for posting online comments that were critical of the Communist Party. While he will be released in days, he will not be allowed to practice law again.

The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court found Pu, 50, guilty of "inciting ethnic hatred" and "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", according to a report by Xinhua news agency.

According to legal experts, the suspended jail sentence means Pu will be put on probation for three years and if he violates the terms or commits offenses in the next three years, he will have to serve his original sentence.

His lawyer, Shang Baojun says lawyers who have been convicted have their lawyer's license revoked. "To be incriminated over one's speech in seven microblog messages -- this is a very heavy price indeed," Shang said.

Amnesty International said the suspended jail sentence was "a deliberate attempt by the Chinese authorities to shackle a champion of freedom of expression".

However, Xinhua said the court handed down a light sentence because Pu "pro-actively confessed to his crimes and showed remorse". It added Pu would not appeal.

We do not know exactly what happened in the court room, but we do know last week that he was adamant about rejecting the charges against him. So what happened between then and now is unclear.

He was convicted on the basis of the content of seven microblog messages that were critical of the government's handling of an ethnic conflict in Kunming, Yunnan province last year, and sarcastic comments about two officials.

Xinhua reported the court said between January 2012 and May 2014, Pu posted messages eight times on various Weibo accounts "to stir ethnic relations and incite ethnic hatred". It said his messages were retweeted 2,500 times and had 1,300 comments, and thus had "provoked internet users' strong ethnic hatred and confrontation feelings", and his behaviour had "posed social danger that has reached a serious level".

As a result, this had caused "psychological damage", and had "lowered [people's] opinions of society", and created "chaos in cyberspace" and a "bad influence in society", and his behaviour had "gravely disrupted social order".

The court makes it sound like Pu was someone disseminating hate literature. While reposting his message 2,500 times is a lot, when compared relative to the number of people in China, it's not a big exposure.

Nevertheless, Xinhua said Pu apologized and showed his willingness to accept punishment during the trial. It added that Pu told the court that through his ordeal, "he has experienced the progress of rule of law, the improvement of the law, and progress of society"...

Was his trial a sign of progress of rule of law in China? The lawyer who suffers from diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, was detained for 19 months without trial and no access to his family.

Beijing has effectively silenced yet another of its critics in a harsh way. He will be made into an example for others to conform even more to the Party line.

But China needs people like him to point out the country's flaws that must be addressed and dealt with. He and others like him want to hold the government accountable so that it will be a more effective one.

How will China's civil society ever be able to flourish when it is so badly needed now?

Bagging the Big Tiger

Zhou Yongkang in court saying he will not appeal the verdict

Former security chief Zhou Yongkang's trial apparently came and went because a few hours ago it was announced he was handed a suspended life sentence -- ie life in prison.

The closed-door trial apparently began on May 22 at Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, and only now was it explained that the trial was not open to the public because "some evidence of his crimes involved state secrets".

It wasn't really surprising Zhou would be jailed for life, but seeing him with completely white hair was a shock. Depriving him and other arrested leaders of black hair dye really transforms them into remorseful looking creatures, unlike their power-trip days.

Zhou is the highest official to be arrested, put on trial and now in prison, and was convicted on many charges, including graft abuse of power, and intentionally leaking state secrets.

For abuse of power, he was given a seven-year sentence, and four for leaking state secrets.

When it came to taking bribes, the court revealed he and his family had taken 129.7 million yuan worth of bribes from Zhou's close allies.

There was the 731,100 yuan from Jiang Jiemin, former head of the state owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and former chairman of the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), where Zhou was the top official for a decade.

Then his son Zhou Bin and wife Jia Xiaoye also benefited handsomely, receiving 129 million yuan from other people, including a Sichuan businessman, a former mayor, and former party chief of a subsidiary of CNPC.

The court said Zhou had abused his power by asking Jiang and former Sichuan deputy party chief Li Chuncheng to funnel more than 2.13 billion yuan to his son and other businessmen. This was somehow calculated as a loss of 1.48 billion yuan to the Chinese economy.

Zhou also apparently had six classified documents, and gave five of them to a "qigong master", according to mainland media. Sounds like there will be more about this supposed master by the name of Cao Yongzheng.

The court spared Zhou the death penalty because it said he confessed to his crimes, pleaded guilty and apparently all the money taken has been accounted for and confiscated.

Really? Every single mao and fen were accounted for? Everyone must have squirreled it away and not spent it on anything, or perhaps they made so much money from that capital that it was easy to return the original amount...

Nevertheless, it's interesting how long Zhou has been in detention (since two years ago) and last July there was a formal announcement of an investigation into alleged abuse of power and corruption.

Now that the big tiger has been bagged, his associates are next. The chances of them being let go are very slim mainly because of their links with Zhou...

Justice Done

Lin Jun was a university student in Montreal when he was murdered in 2012

Lin Diran received a bitter sweet Christmas present yesterday.

His son Lin Jun's killer was convicted of first degree murder in Montreal and will be behind bars for 25 years without parole.

The horrific crime took place in 2012 when Luka Magnotta lured 33-year-old Lin to his apartment, murdered him, did indecent acts with the body, dismembered the body and disposed of the body parts by mailing some of them to two Vancouver addresses as well as members of parliament including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Luka Magnotta (centre) was sentenced to 25 years in prison

Magnotta, 32, tried to plead he had schizophrenia that caused him to kill, claiming his father had the illness and so did he, but after eight days of deliberation, the jury did not believe the porn star's supposed mental illness was the reason why he callously murdered Lin.

It was an excruciating wait for Lin Diran, but in the end the jury decided the facts of the case all pointed to Magnotta's obsessive desire for attention, videotaping the murder and putting it online, and that it was premeditated, and that he was not schizophrenic at all.

A key piece of evidence was Magnotta's email to a British journalist six months prior to the murder, saying he planned to kill a human and make a movie out of it.

After the verdict was read out, the prosecutor read out Lin Diran's statement.

"The night Lin Jun died, parts of many other people died in one way or another. His mother, his sister and me, his friends... in one night, we lost a lifetime of hope," the statement read.

Lin Jun's parents: his father Lin Diran attended the trial

"I had come to see your trial system to see justice done, and I leave satisfied that you have not let my son down."

Lin Diran had come to Canada to attend the trial which must have been an eye-opening experience for him. He also probably learned more about his son's life in Montreal, how he enjoyed living abroad, and became more comfortable as a gay man, something he may have hidden from his family.

However, Lin Jun's life as an undergraduate student at Concordia University was cut short by an egotistical man who thought nothing of others except that they were for him to determine their fates. After the murder Magnottta fled Montreal to Europe and watched on social media as the authorities tried to catch up with him. Eventually he was recognized by someone in a cafe and was arrested.

It is a relief that this sensational case is over, though Lin Jun will never come back to his family. We hope that this verdict will bring some comfort to them, knowing their son's killer is being punished severely for his heinous crime for a long time.

Fighting Words

Xu wants to create a more just society in China... what's wrong with that?

Xu Zhiyong is an activist lawyer and academic who is considered to be the leader of the New Citizens' Movement. In 2012 he wrote the movement sought "to completely destroy the privileges of corruption, the abuse of power, the gap between rich and poor and to construct a new order of fairness and justice".

The group called for the end of corruption, which is also in line with what Chinese President Xi Jinping is doing with his current campaign, but the leadership was not happy that this grassroots organization was advocating this and promptly arrested Xu.

He was put on trial yesterday without specific charges -- and no foreign media nor diplomats allowed in. As a result, Xu and his lawyers felt the proceedings were not open nor just, so they refused to speak in court.

Xu's lawyer said his client tried to read out a statement that spelled out his ideas of "liberty, justice and love", but was cut off by court officials after 10 minutes after he asked why China did not follow the practices of other countries having officials declare their assets.

His full statement was made available online, in which he questioned whether the authorities took citizens' constitutional rights seriously and said they had "deep fears" of public trials and "the looming free society".

Six other activists were also put on trial today and Xu added in his statement that the others were not guilty because they were pushing for democracy and the rule of law, and that he was willing to pay a price for his ideals.

There's no verdict yet in Xu's trial, but it is expected he and the others will be found guilty of the alleged crime of "assembling a crowd to disrupt order in a public place".

The thing is, 40-year-old Xu is anything but a radical. He is a soft spoken, rational person who has thought a lot about what is wrong about China and wants to fix it in a logical way -- on a case-by-case basis.

Born in central China's Henan province, Xu was 14 years old when he decided "to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation", he said in 2008. "I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change."

He studied law at Lanzhou University in Gansu province and then later at Peking University. He then became a law lecturer at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

In recent years he has tried to help many people, such as doing pro bono work in 2009 for families who were affected by the melamine milk scandal, and he was beaten for trying to visit blind activist Chen Guangcheng who was under house arrest.

He and a group of legal scholars started the Open Constitution Initiative in 2003, a grassroots organization promoting rule of law and constitutionalism. However, the authorities tried to shut down OCI by slapping it with a massive tax bill (claiming its donations were from overseas and should be taxed), and declared the group illegal. Xu was arrested but then released a month later after international outcry.

By arresting Xu and putting him and others on trial this week show the government's paranoia in grassroots groups that are pushing for rule of law and more openness, and is trying to squash the New Citizens' Movement.

Conversely by trying to destroy this group, other Chinese have taken an interest in New Citizens' Movement -- because if the government doesn't like it, the group must be doing something right.

So if and when Xu gets locked up behind bars, there is hope others will pick up the mantle and continue spreading his words behind the New Citizens' Movement. All he wants is for people to be more aware of their rights, as well as their right to protect their rights.

They shouldn't have to fight for rights that are inherent... but in China it's an ongoing battle between the state and the individual.