Four of the earliest released defendants in the Hong Kong pro-democracy primary election case, Mo Mengjing, Fan Guowei, Guo Jiaqi, and Tan Wenhao, were released from prison on Tuesday (April 29th). Three days later, Mo Mengjing updated her social media page around 10 a.m. today (May 2nd), which is the first time since 2021.
Mo Mengjing first uploaded a photo taken at her residence on her Facebook page today, along with a caption that reads, “Photo taken couple hours after getting home from prison.” She later posted another message thanking everyone for their care and support following her release.
Describing her initial experience as almost “Kafkaesque” and “surreal,” Mo Mengjing mentioned that she did not suffer from the two major incarceration traumas of loneliness and boredom. She also shared that she read over 300 books in prison, mainly novels, and even relearned French.
Mo Mengjing expressed special thanks to her friends and family who supported her, particularly retired Bishop Joseph Ha of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, Reporters Without Borders, and the disbanded Hong Kong Journalists Association. She ended her message by stating, “I miss those defendants who are still in custody.”
It has been four years since her last update on Facebook. The previous post on her page was published on February 28, 2021, and she indicated that it was posted by someone else. At that time, she wrote, “Even if the world is still not accustomed, my heart is carefree,” “#HongKong people always love Hong Kong,” emphasizing her mental strength despite physical frailty and concluding with a message of love for Hong Kong.
Mo Mengjing was charged in the “47-man case” with “conspiring to subvert state power.” The widespread crackdown on Hong Kong democrats began in January 2021, resulting in the prosecution of 47 individuals, including Legislative Council members, district councilors, and labor union leaders. Two defendants were acquitted on November 19, 2024, while the former associate professor of the University of Hong Kong Law School, Benny Tai Yiu-ting, was sentenced to 10 years, and the other 44 individuals received sentences ranging from 4 to 7 years.
Prior to the 2020 Hong Kong Legislative Council elections, Benny Tai proposed coordinating a primary election among the pro-democracy camp, aiming to secure a majority of the 70 seats in the Legislative Council to block budget bills and pressure the Chief Executive to respond to the five demands of the 2019 protesters. 610,000 Hong Kong residents participated in the primaries.
Defendant Ho Kwai-lan, in an English post on Facebook, described herself as having participated in Hong Kong’s final free and fair election, resulting in being prosecuted in the first Soviet/CCP-style subversion case.
Mo Mengjing, aged 68, is a Hong Kong pro-democracy political figure and former media worker. Born in Hong Kong with ancestry from Ningbo, Zhejiang, she went to Canada for further studies after completing Form Five in Hong Kong. She later returned to Hong Kong to work as a journalist, was a former member of the Democratic Party, served as a LegCo member for Kowloon West, and was the convener of the pro-democracy camp. She also worked as a lecturer for the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.