Seven Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders, including the founding chairman of the Democratic Party, Lee Chu-ming, the founder of a media group, Lai Chi-ying, barrister Ng Mui-yee and others, were charged with “organizing and participating in an unauthorized assembly” on August 18 of the previous year in Hong Kong Island, and were found guilty on two counts.
Barrister Wu Naiyi, who is relieved of her duties as a lawyer, pleaded her case in court and was applauded by the public.
She described herself as a former journalist who joined the legal profession in 1990 and has been a member of the Legislative Council for 18 years, trying her best to protect the rule of law. The law should be to protect, not to take away the rights of the people, and only in this way can win the trust of the public to the government.”
She also said that after the handover of sovereignty in Hong Kong in 1997, people have been disciplined and highly restrained in many important moments, such as the “7.1” in 2003, to “6.9” and “6.16” in 2019. For example, from “7.1” in 2003 to “6.9” and “6.16” in 2019, over 1 million and 2 million people marched respectively, all in a peaceful and orderly manner, without any violence. Because of this, she cannot abandon the people and has to continue marching with them shoulder to shoulder. “I have to stand with them, stand by them, stand up for them.”
She also claimed that justice is the soul of the law, and that the rule of law is not defined in the courtroom, but in the streets and communities, and she concluded by borrowing and modifying a famous quote from a famous British judge, “I am a public servant of the law, but the people must walk before the law, for the law must serve the people, not the people the law.” ( I stand the law’s good servant, but the people’s first. For the law must serve the people, not the people the law.)
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