Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷)
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Crime: “conspiracy to commit subversion”
Length of Punishment: 10 years
Court: High Court, Hong Kong SAR
Trial Date: 6 February 2023-May 30, 2024 (113 days)
Sentencing Date: November 19, 2024
Dates of Detention/Arrest/Indictment: January 6, 2021 (arrest), January 7, 2021 (bail), February 28, 2021 (charged)
Place of Incarceration: Stanley Prison, Hong Kong
Verdict: HKSAR v NG Ching-hang & Ors HKSAR v Tai Yiu Ting & Ors
Benny Tai is a Hong Kong law professor, co-founder of the non-violent civil disobedience movement Occupy Hong Kong with Peace and Love, and key organiser of unofficial primary election amongst opposition parties ahead of the 2020 Legislative Council election. In November 2024, Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced Tai to 10 years in prison on charges of “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the National Security Law (NSL) for his role in the unofficial primary election. The court accused Tai of being a “principal offender” and “mastermind.” To date, he has received the heaviest sentence of any individual in Hong Kong convicted under the NSL.
In response to the sentencing of 45 individuals for taking part in the unofficial primary, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for a review of the cases, and for the sentences that do not meet international human rights standards to be quashed. The UN has called on Hong Kong to repeal the NSL and to refrain from applying it. Tai is reportedly being held at Stanley Prison.
In an opinion article in the New York Times published in 2018, Tai wrote:
“The onslaught against free speech…doesn’t seem to require making any offending statement at all.”
Further information
“China: End Long-Term Imprisonment of Human Rights Defenders”, CHRD, December 9, 2025[F1] OHCHR, “Hong Kong: Grave concerns over sentencing under National Security Law”, November 19, 2024
