Three Hong Kong activists will have to wait to learn the outcome of their final appeal yesterday to overturn prison sentences for their roles in sparking 2014’s massive pro-democracy protests in the territory.
Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal judges said they would issue their decision at a later, unspecified date following the appeal hearing for Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), Nathan Law (羅冠聰) and Alex Chow (周永康) against the sentences of up to eight months.
Bail for the three was extended.
The three were initially let off with suspended or community service sentences after they were convicted of taking part in or inciting an unlawful assembly by storming a courtyard at government headquarters to start the protests,
However, the case sparked controversy when the Hong Kong Secretary for Justice requested a sentencing review that resulted in stiffer sentences, raising concerns about rule of law and fears that the territory’s Beijing-backed government is tightening up on dissent.
The trio’s lawyers said the Hong Kong District Court overstepped its boundaries and put too much emphasis on the need for deterrence in handing down the revised harsher sentence.
“Laying down a heavy sentence will have a deterrent effect, but a balance has to be held between a deterrent and stifling young idealistic people,” Law’s lawyer Robert Pang (彭耀鴻) told the judges.
Wong’s lawyer also said that under Hong Kong law, the 21-year-old should not have been sent to prison because he was a minor at the time.
Speaking on the courthouse steps before the hearing, Wong estimated he had a 50-50 chance of going back to prison.
“However I still believe that when people are united we will not be defeated,” he said.
Wong made world headlines and starred in a Netflix documentary after leading the “Umbrella movement’” protests while still a teenager.
The protests, which brought parts of the busy Asian financial hub to a halt over Beijing’s plan to restrict elections for top leader, ended without resolution after 11 weeks.
The three were given revised sentences ranging from six to eight months of prison time in last year’s ruling but were bailed partway through when they won permission to appeal.
Wong could end up back in prison as soon as today, when he is due to be sentenced in a separate court case also related to the 2014 protests.
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