Three Hong Kong student leaders who helped orchestrate the financial hub’s massive pro-democracy street protests in 2014 were spared jail time yesterday, but ordered to carry out community service.
Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), 19, was given 80 hours of community service for unlawful assembly after he and others stormed into a fenced-off area in front of government headquarters known as “Civic Square” to stage a sit-in in September 2014.
That sparked a night-long standoff with police and was seen as a key trigger for the “Umbrella movement” that blocked major roads in the territory for 79 days in a push for full democracy.
Photo: AFP
Two other student leaders, Alex Chow (周永康), 25, and Nathan Law (羅冠聰), 23, were also sentenced.
District court judge June Cheung Tin-ngan (張天雁) said that it would be unfair if she were influenced by the current political atmosphere into handing down a “deterrent sentence.”
“The court believes the case is different from an ordinary criminal case. I accept they were genuinely expressing their views and demands out of their political beliefs or their concern for society,” she said in sentencing the men at Eastern Magistrates’ Court. “Their aim and motive is not for their own interest or to hurt other people.”
The three had no prior convictions, were concerned about social issues and passionate about politics, she said.
Chow received a three-week sentence, suspended for a year — he could not complete community service because he would be studying in the UK. He will not serve jail time unless he offends in the coming year.
Law, who was found guilty of the more serious charge of inciting others to unlawful assembly, was given 120 hours of community service.
The defendants, who had been facing two-year jail terms, praised Cheung for her leniency.
Speaking outside the court beside banners calling for “democracy and self-determination,” Chow said the judge’s statement carried a “timely warning” for authorities at a time when more people have agitated for independence from China.
“The authorities should consider why so many people are raising these options. What is the motivation, stance and reasons behind them,” he said.
“The court has taken the view that the Umbrella movement and entering Civic Square was not for personal gain but public good,” Wong said.
“She sent a message that such rights should be respected,” Law said of the judge.
“I was really worrying about whether I would be sentenced to imprisonment and that it would affect my election campaign [for the Legislative Council],” Law said.
Wong’s lawyer, Michael Vidler, said the sentence was fair, but that the legal process had been skewed by politics.
“There’s a bit of sort of an attitude of ... let’s just prosecute everybody despite the weakness of some cases,” he said. “They wanted to send a message and very much for Joshua: Let’s dig up the incidents in the past and see whether we can charge him.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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