A Hong Kong appeals court yesterday jailed three leaders of the territory’s pro-democracy “Umbrella movement” for six to eight months, dealing a blow to the youth-led push for universal suffrage and prompting accusations of political interference.
The jail terms are to curtail the political ambitions of the trio, disqualifying them from running for seats in the territory’s legislature for the next five years.
Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), 20, Alex Chow (周永康), 26, and Nathan Law (羅冠聰), 24, were sentenced last year to non-jail terms, including community service for unlawful assembly, but the Hong Kong Department of Justice applied for a review, seeking imprisonment.
Photo: AFP
Wong was jailed for six months, Chow for seven months and Law for eight months.
Law had been Hong Kong’s youngest-ever democratically elected legislator before he was stripped last month of his seat by a government-led lawsuit.
Wong, who was 17 when he became the face of the student-led democracy movement, punched his fist in the air as he left the courtroom and shouted: “Hong Kong people don’t give up.”
Minutes earlier he tweeted: “They can silence protests, remove us from the legislature and lock us up. But they will not win the hearts and minds of Hongkongers.”
Chow waved at his parents as he left the court. His mother broke down in tears.
The three judges in Hong Kong’s second-highest court, the Court of Appeal, wrote in their judgement that the three could not say they were sentenced for exercising freedom of assembly in a territory where many democrats see a gradual erosion of freedoms promised in 1997.
“In recent years, there’s been an unhealthy trend in Hong Kong society. Some people use the pursuit of ideals ... as an excuse to take illegal action,” the judgement said. “This case is a prime example of the aforementioned unhealthy trend.”
The former British colony, which has been governed under a “one country, two systems” formula since it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, was rocked by nearly three months of mostly peaceful street occupations in late 2014, demanding Beijing grant the territory full democracy.
The “Umbrella movement” was triggered by Wong and his colleagues storming into a courtyard fronting the territory’s government headquarters.
They were later charged with participating in and inciting an unlawful assembly.
Just before sentencing, Wong told more than 100 supporters who thronged into the court lobby, some weeping, that he had no regrets.
“I hope Hong Kong people won’t give up,” he said. “Victory is ours. When we are released next year I hope we can see a Hong Kong that is full of hope. I want to see Hong Kong people not giving up. This is my last wish before I go to jail.”
The Department of Justice said in an earlier statement there was “absolutely no basis to imply any political motive.”
Critics disagreed.
“From the initial choice to prosecute these young democrats through today’s hearing, these cases have been shot through by politics, not law,” Human Rights Watch China director Sophie Richardson said in a statement. “That Hong Kong’s courts increasingly appear to operate as mainland courts do is clear evidence that ‘one country, two systems’ is on the ropes — with ominous consequences for all.”
Amnesty International also slammed the jail terms.
“The relentless and vindictive pursuit of student leaders using vague charges smacks of political payback by the authorities,” Amnesty International Hong Kong director Mabel Au (區美寶) said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS