A newly established eligibility committee will ensure that extreme anti-China candidates are not allowed to contest the Hong Kong Election Committee polls, which start on Sunday, experts said.
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Nine veteran Hong Kong activists face jail after they were convicted on Thursday on unlawful assembly charges for their role in organising one of the biggest democracy protests to engulf the city in 2019.
The defendants include some of the city s most prominent pro-democracy campaigners, many of whom are non-violence advocates who have spent decades campaigning in vain for universal suffrage.
They are the latest group of democracy figures to be prosecuted as China oversees a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the restless financial hub.
Among them are Martin Lee, an 82-year-old barrister who was once chosen by Beijing to help write Hong Kong s mini-constitution, and Margaret Ng, a 73-year-old barrister and former opposition lawmaker.