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D2 Au Nok-hin
48. D2 is now aged 37, a former LegCo Councillor and District Councillor. The Primary Election was intended to be his last political event before his departure from Hong Kong to Japan for a PhD studies. Since his remand, his savings had been exhausted due to various legal proceedings arising from his political activities. He has two criminal convictions.
49. D2 was one of the organisers. His role could be seen in essence from paragraphs 111–114, 126–131, 134–142, 145–147, 155, 172 of our Reasons for Verdict. Likewise, one might like to read the Summary of Facts admitted by D2.
50. In the present case, D2 pleaded guilty to the charge at the committal and gave evidence for the prosecution in the trial. His evidence was summarised in our Reasons for Verdict at Annex A. In our view, his evidence was crucial in piecing all the evidence together and provided this Court with a full picture of all the events that took place in 2020 in a systematic and logical manner.
51. Mitigation letters had been submitted from his parents, academic supervisor and Mr Zimmerman, they pleaded for leniency on his behalf. They all spoke highly of him.
52. In term of culpability, we took the view that as one of the organisers, his degree of participation in the Scheme was more or less the same as D1. His involvement in the Scheme started at its inception. Notwithstanding the fact that D2 was not as radical as D1, the notional
