Nine leaders of Hong Kong’s 2014 democracy protests yesterday appeared in court after their surprise summons, charged with inciting the street occupation that paralyzed parts of the territory for months in what some expect to be a long legal battle.
The nine were charged on Monday, just a day after a Beijing-backed candidate, Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), was chosen as the territory’s next chief executive, seen by many as a worrying sign after she had vowed to heal divisions in the Chinese-ruled territory and unite society .
The protest leaders, including the “Occupy Central trio” of Benny Tai (戴耀廷), Chan Kin-man (陳健民) and Baptist minister Chu Yiu-ming (朱耀明), entered the magistrates’ court smiling and shaking hands with a few dozen supporters, some holding yellow umbrellas, the symbol of the civil disobedience movement.
Photo: AFP
The trio each face charges including conspiracy to commit public nuisance and inciting others to commit public nuisance.
Six others, including two legislators and two former student protest leaders, were also charged with crimes related to public nuisance.
The nine told the court they understood the charges, but the hearing was largely procedural and did not require them to enter pleas.
The case was adjourned until May 25.
Veteran pro-democracy politician and barrister Martin Lee (李柱銘), representing five of the defendants, requested the case be transferred to the Hong Kong High Court instead of the district court, so that the nine could be tried by a jury.
“After all, the allegations are of a public nature,” Lee said.
The judge said it was up to the prosecution to decide which court tries the case.
Outside the court, about a dozen pro-China protesters jeered at the protest leaders, cursing them in colorful Cantonese to get stabbed, while slapping photographs of them with flip-flops.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years, Tai said, adding that the activists might plead guilty in the spirit of civil disobedience.
The former British colony, governed under the “one country, two systems” formula, was promised a high degree of autonomy and the right to select its chief executive when it was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997.
Twenty years later, only 1,194 people on an “election committee” stacked with Beijing loyalists voted Lam into power.
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