A maverick Hong Kong politician was convicted yesterday of unlawful assembly, just six days after being re-elected to the city’s legislature.
Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄), 52, also known as Long Hair, appeared in court for barging into the home of former Hong Kong housing chief Michael Suen with five other activists in a protest against rising rents last year.
Magistrate Gary Lam of the city’s Kwun Tong court told Leung the right to protest did not overrule residents’ rights to privacy. Leung will be sentenced in two week’s time.
Leung’s conviction is the latest in a string of court appearances for his political activities, one of which landed him a jail term during which he was forced to cut off his trademark long hair.
Leung was best known for shouting down former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa from the public gallery of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council during his annual policy addresses before he became a lawmaker himself in 2004.
Last Sunday’s election, Leung — a colorful figure in an otherwise largely dull and obedient legislature — was voted back in for a second four-year term in the former British colony.
He has refused to scale back his political activities despite his entry to the legislature and is a constant critic of Beijing’s controlling influence over the city of 6.9 million.
Long Hair insists he will not voluntarily cut his hair until Beijing apologizes for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in which hundreds and possibly thousands of protesting students were killed.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
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