The Court of Appeal on Monday granted leave to 11 people jailed for subversion to take their cases to the Court of Final Appeal.

They were jailed for their roles in a plot to overthrow the government by taking part in an unsanctioned "primary poll" in 2020.

According to the Court of Appeal decision, the certificate of appeal was granted on five legal questions: the meaning of "other unlawful means" under Article 22 of the National Security Law; whether that is confined to "acts by force or threat of force"; whether that is confined to criminal acts; whether the principle of non-intervention applies; and whether an accused will have the specific subversive intent in the context of the case.

The applicants are Clarisse Yeung, Helena Wong, Owen Chow, Winnie Yu, Gwyneth Ho, Lam Cheuk-ting, Gordon Ng, Cheng Tat-hung, Kalvin Ho, Ray Chan and Leung Kwok-hung.

All of them appeared in court on Monday morning.

Most of them are appealing against both the judgement and sentence.

They were among 45 people jailed in 2024 over the plot to gain control of the legislature, indiscriminately vote down the budget and trigger a constitutional crisis aimed at forcing the chief executive to resign.


Edited by Edmond Fong