Hong Kong’s legal chief yesterday denied any “political motive” in seeking jail for three young pro-democracy activists, responding to a news report that he had overruled other legal officials who had initially advised against pursuing the case.
An appeals court on Thursday jailed three leaders of the territory’s pro-democracy movement, Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), 20, Alex Chow (周永康), 26, and Nathan Law (羅冠聰), 24, for six to eight months, dealing a blow to the youth-led push for universal suffrage.
Several protests by their supporters are planned in the coming days.
They had been convicted of unlawful assembly related to months of mostly peaceful street protests that gripped the territory in 2014, but failed to sway Chinese Communist Party rulers in Beijing in their call for full democracy.
The trio had already been sentenced last year by a district court in the territory to non-jail terms, including community service, but the Hong Kong Department of Justice applied for a review, seeking jail terms.
Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen (袁國強) had reportedly ignored the advice of several senior prosecutors in the department in pushing for jail terms.
Yuen said differences of opinion could be constructive.
“I believe everyone will understand that any entity, including a government department, in discussing something, will sometimes have a consensus and sometimes there are different opinions,” he told reporters.
“I hope everyone can understand that the main point is not whether there was any difference in opinion and actually sometimes having a difference in opinion is a good thing, because if everyone has the same opinion then you can’t have a constructive discussion,” he said.
There “hasn’t been any political motive at all” in the case, Yuen added.
However, the sentencing has stoked broader international fears for Hong Kong’s constitutionally enshrined freedoms, part of the “one country, two systems” deal under which the British returned the territory to China in 1997, as well as perceptions of political meddling.
Taiwan’s Presidential Office expressed “much regret” over the sentence.
“We are concerned by the decision of the Hong Kong authorities to seek a tougher sentence,” US Consulate General Hong Kong and Macau spokeswoman Kristin Haworth said. “We hope Hong Kong’s law enforcement continues to reflect Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and remains apolitical.”
US House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called the resentencing of the trio “unjust.”
“This injustice offends the basic notions of freedom and democracy, and deserves the swift and unified condemnation of the international community,” she said in a statement.
Britain said it was vital Hong Kong’s young people had a voice in politics and it hoped the sentencing would not discourage legitimate protest in future.
However, China’s state-run tabloid, the Global Times, welcomed the jail terms, saying “the law has shown its authority.”
“This sentence will be a milestone in Hong Kong’s governance. From now on people who protest violently can be given a guilty sentence following this precedent and they will need to go to jail,” the paper wrote.
The jail terms disqualify Wong, Chow and Law from running for the territory’s legislature for the next five years.
Law had been the territory’s youngest-ever democratically elected legislator before he was stripped last month of his seat by a government-led lawsuit. The three plan to appeal.
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