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Hong Kong court convicts ‘Long Hair’ of illegal assembly

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.
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