Overview
- Wong entered a guilty plea in Hong Kong’s High Court on Wednesday, Sept. 2, to a charge of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under the 2020 national security law.
- Prosecutors say the charge covers activity between July and November 2020, and carries a statutory range of three to 10 years or up to life if the offence is judged ‘grave’.
- Wong is already serving a four‑year, eight‑month sentence from an earlier national security conviction and before the new arrest had been expected to be released in January next year.
- Court documents and prosecutors cite overseas lobbying, meetings with foreign politicians, media outreach and the sharing of an online petition urging digital forensic firms to cut ties with Hong Kong police as evidence.
- Rights groups warn the plea may be used to keep a leading dissident behind bars and chill international advocacy, and observers say the next concrete step is the judge’s sentencing decision which the court said will be set “as soon as possible.”