Sixteen Hong Kong democrats who pleaded not guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion await their fate, as a panel of three judges prepare to hand down their verdict in the city’s largest – and to date, longest lasting – national security trial. Two days have been set aside for the verdict hearing, which comes almost three and a half years after they were among 47 arrested under the Beijing-imposed security law in January 2021 over their roles in unofficial primaries held in July 2020 in an attempt to gain a controlling majority in the upcoming Legislative Council (LegCo) elec…
