Hong Kong's 'Father of Democracy' Martin Lee faces jail term over 2019 protest

Former lawmaker Martin Lee is among the seven pro-democracy supporters who were convicted by a Hong Kong court for organising and participating in a peaceful march in August 2019. The 82-year-old politician now faces a prison term of up to five years. A district court on Thursday found Lee and six others, including the famous media mogul Jimmy Lai, guilty of pressed charges and will pronounce sentences on a later date. 

Who is Martin Lee?

Lee has been a prominent supporter of democracy in Hong Kong and is often called the ‘Father of Democracy’ in the former British colony. Despite his recent conviction, Lee has always advocated for closer ties with Beijing. Lee, who is also a barrister, was briefly a member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee but was later removed after he criticised the 1989 Tiananmen square crackdown by the Communist regime in the mainland. 

When and why did Lee join politics?

Lee entered the political arena in 1985 when he was elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council for the first time. In 1990, Lee founded Hong Kong’s first pro-democracy political party called the United Democrats. The party won the next election with a landslide victory under Lee’s leadership. Prior to the 1995 election, Lee merged his party with Meeting Point to form what is now known as the Democratic Party. 

The new party won the 1995 election with a landslide victory. In 1997, after the United Kingdom handed Hong Kong back to China, Lee and several other legislators were forced to resign. But Lee was reelected to the Hong Kong LegCo the next year and remained in office until retirement in 2008. 

Lee’s relation with Beijing?

Lee has always been a vocal advocate for human rights in Hong Kong and China, which often created friction between the politician and the authorities in Beijing. Lee’s constant advocacy for democracy and human rights even earned him the tag of a ‘traitor’ by the Communist regime, which felt threatened when the politician testified in the US Congress in 2004. Lee and his Democratic Party were one of the key reasons Beijing had to dump the proposed National Security Bill in 2003, which attracted widespread protests across the city, including international condemnation. 

Lee silenced for life

Since his retirement from the Hong Kong Legislative Council, Lee has staged several protests in the city, including in 2014, when he took part in the Umbrella Revolution, a massive 75-day pro-democracy movement. Lee continued his advocacy until 2020 when China imposed the draconian National Security Law to silence the dissent and anti-Communist voices. Lee stopped speaking publicly on policies concerning Hong Kong and China.

(Image Credit: AP)