Some of Hong Kong’s youngest and most iconic pro-democracy activists—Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam—were sentenced on Wednesday by the West Kowloon magistrates court for their participation in the unlawful anti-government rally that took place in 2019. Wong, the leader of the rallies, received a jail term of over 13 months, making it the most high-profile and the longest sentence issued to members of Hong Kong’s opposition, while Chow and Lam were respectively sentenced to 10 months for incitement and participation in unlawful protests and 7 months for incitement.
The three activists have pleaded guilty to charges of surrounding the police headquarters along with thousands of other protestors on June 21 to demand the government withdraw a now-scrapped extradition bill, which would have allowed for criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. Judge Wong Sze-lai, who was presiding over the ruling, said that the tough sentence was issued to deter future acts of dissent.
However, the jail sentence is no surprise for the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Wong, who said that he had been expecting this after pleading guilty. This would be Wong’s fourth stint in jail after he was incarcerated for five weeks last year for contempt of court. After being awarded his latest sentence, Wong shouted that the fight was not over and that he was aware that “the coming days will be tougher”, but assured that the opposition would “hang in there”.
The international community expressed its concerns over the threat to the region’s democratic freedom. Japan conveyed its “grave concerns” about the recent development to China, who is known to back the current government of Hong Kong, led by Carrie Lam. Meanwhile, British foreign minister Dominic Raab also called on Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to stop stifling opposition. Furthermore, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director, Yamini Mishra, said, “By targeting well-known activists from Hong Kong’s largely leaderless protest movement, authorities are sending a warning to anyone who dares openly criticise the government that they could be next.”
The crackdown by Beijing has only increased since the 2019 protests, most notably through the imposition of the national security law in June this year, which punishes anything that China considers subversion, secessionism, terrorism, or collusion with foreign forces with harsh penalties, including up to life in prison. Following this, China’s National People's Congress Standing Committee approved a resolution that gave Hong Kong’s local authorities the power to bypass local courts and instantaneously remove politicians viewed as a threat to national security. Consequently, four Hong Kong lawmakers who have so far supported the territory’s pro-democracy movement were immediately unseated. The same assembly members had previously been banned from running for re-election as authorities deemed that their pledge of allegiance to Hong Kong was not earnest. In response, in November, the opposition lawmakers resigned from the committee en masse.
Hong Kong Incarcerates 3 Lead Pro-Democracy Activists
Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong was jailed along with two more activists for taking part in the pro-democracy protests last year.
December 3, 2020
SOURCE: MIGUEL CANDELA/SOPA IMAGES/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK