"Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung said he may have pleaded guilty but did not think he did anything wrong during a mitigation hearing for 10 defendants who organized the unauthorized National Day assembly in 2019.
For their part, Cyd Ho Sau-lan, 66, and Lee Cheuk-yan, 64, said they have always advocated peaceful protests and had nothing to do with violence, but district court judge Amanda Woodcock questioned how they could distance themselves from the violence that happened along the rally route that day.
The other seven who also pleaded guilty are Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, 73; Albert Ho Chun-yan, 69; Yeung Sum, 73; Sin Chung-kai, 60; Avery Ng Man-yuen, 44; Figo Chan Ho-wun, 25; and Richard Tsoi Yiu-Cheong, 53.
They could face up to five years under the Public Order Ordinance.
Ng and Tsoi also admitted taking part in the assembly, while the same charge against the other eight defendants was not pursued by the court.
Chan, Lee, Leung, 65, and Albert Ho also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of inciting others to take part in the unauthorized assembly. Lai, Leung, Lee and Cyd Ho are serving prison terms of eight to 18 months for organizing or taking part in assemblies in August 2019, while the six others are remanded at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.
Woodcock has set sentencing for Friday.
In mitigation, Leung said in a written statement that he "pleaded guilty but did nothing wrong."
"The National Day march was as peaceful as it was scheduled the whole time. We were just exercising our rights protected by the Basic Law and using our freedom to express our political views. What's wrong with it?" Leung said.
Senior counsel Hectar Pun Hei, who represented Leung, said his client has said the march would be peaceful and he only took part in the march for about an hour before leaving.
Pun added that the violent incidents that happened that day had nothing to do with the march and the court should not blame Leung for it.
Lai's lawyer Graham Harris expects Lai to be jailed, but appealed to the court to hand down a lenient sentence as Lai had pleaded guilty and is suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure.
