The marathon bail hearing of 47 democracy advocates in Hong Kong continues into its fourth day on Thursday, where the judge is expected to make a ruling.

Around 10 defendants, including Lee Yue-shun, who recently quit Civic Party, and former journalist Gwyneth Ho, delivered their plea statements. Several dissidents have dismissed their legal representatives and requested to present supplementary testimonies to the judge directly.

Maggie Yang, deputy director of public prosecutions, expressed concerns that some media outlets have violated Section 9P in the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, which enforces press reporting restrictions for bail proceedings. She stressed that the reports would be unfair to the defendants and have a negative impact on legal robustness.

Yang pointed out, in the national security case of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, High Court judge Anthea Pang ruled that the media can only report on the bail conditions as stated in the law to guarantee the fairness of the trial and protect the interests of the defendants.

Barrister David Ma noted that the media widely reported on his suggestion to lift the reporting restrictions last night.

Chief Magistrate Victor So reminded the public and media to abide by the legal restrictions unless the court ordered to lift them. He will make a ruling on the bail applications of the defendants as well as the reporting restrictions “in one go,” said So.

Though bail proceedings commenced at 11 a.m., nearly a hundred supporters waited in the rain outside as early as 7 a.m. Some held up banners demanding the authorities to “release all political prisoners.”

The 47 pro-democracy politicians and activists are charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” for organizing or participating in the unofficial primaries for the Legislative Council election last summer, marking the largest batch of prosecutions under Beijing’s national security law for Hong Kong.

The four-day marathon hearings lasted till late in the night and saw several democrats admitted to hospitals. One of the defendants, district councilor Kalvin Ho, was absent from Thursday’s hearing as he was still in hospital. They also had no chance to shower and wore the same outfits for days.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play