Au Nok-hin was a member of the Southern District Council for Lei Tung I (利東一) from 2012 to 2019 and was elected as a member of the Legislative Council (LegCo) for Hong Kong Island from 2018 to 2019. [1] [2] He also served as the convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front (民間人權陣線) from 2016 to 2017, a now-disbanded organization that was known for organizing mass pro-democracy protests, including the annual July 1 rally. [3]

Au earned a bachelor's degree and a master of philosophy degree in government and public administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where he was actively involved in student activism. Inspired by his time as an exchange student in Tokyo, Japan, learning of the power of the Japanese legislature on governance and public policy, he was determined to enter Hong Kong's LegCo to freshen and bring changes to the council. [4]

Au joined the Democratic Party (香港民主黨) in 2009 and was known to be a young and progressive voice in the party, urging it to take a more radical approach to uphold the interest of the Hong Kong people. [5] He ran as a first-time candidate in the 2011 District Council Elections and defeated the incumbent pro-Beijing councilor in the Southern District Council. [6] In 2017, he left the party, citing differences in political beliefs, and ran as an independent candidate in the 2018 Legislative Council by-election for Hong Kong Island as the pro-democracy camp's "Plan B" following the disqualification of Agnes Chow of Demosistō (香港眾志). [7] He defeated his two pro-Beijing opponents to win the seat with 51 percent of the electorate. [8] However, in September 2019, in response to an appeal filed by Agnes Chow and Ventus Lau of the returning officer's decision to disqualify them from running in the by-election, the High Court ruled in their favor, overturning the decision and declaring the 2018 by-election result invalid. [9] Au and another seating lawmaker Gary Fan (范國威) were rejected from appeal and immediately unseated from the LegCo. [10]

During the 2019 pro-democracy protests, Au was charged with assaulting a police officer using a loudspeaker on July 8, 2019, and organizing an unauthorized rally on Aug. 18, 2019. [11] [12] He was convicted of the charges and sentenced to 10 months and 9 weeks respectively. [13] [14]

In January 2020, Au committed to organizing the pro-democracy primary election in July 2020 with Benny Tai (戴耀庭). [15] For his involvement, Au, along with 54 other pro-democracy activists, was arrested on Jan. 6, 2021, under the National Security Law for participating in or organizing the election. [16] 47 of them were officially charged with conspiracy to commit subversion on Feb. 28, 2021. [17]

Au pleaded guilty to the charges and was one of the four defendants who testified as prosecution witnesses. [18] [19] On Nov. 19, 2024, the court ruled that Au was an organizer of the primary election, hence he was given a starting point for sentencing at 15 years. Given mitigating factors, including his guilty plea, the importance of his testimony for the prosecution, and his prior public services, he received a 55 percent sentence deduction and was ultimately sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison. [20]

Photo credit: Voice of America