Hong Kong democracy advocates yesterday pledged to sustain their fight for full democracy at the end of a month-long trial that could see them jailed for leading and inciting 2014 protests against what they see as Beijing’s unjust curbs on freedom.
Nine defendants face a maximum seven years in jail for each of various charges that include conspiracy to commit public nuisance and incitement to commit public nuisance. A verdict is expected on April 9.
They all pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors said that the accused were instigators of the 79-day “Occupy” protests in late 2014 which drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets, hoping to press Beijing to grant full democracy in the global financial hub.
“Only through the introduction of genuine universal suffrage could a door be opened to resolving the deep-seated conflicts in Hong Kong,” one of the nine, law professor Benny Tai (戴耀廷), 54, told the court. “The price of freedom is indeed eternal vigilance.”
The prosecution’s case focused on three people: Tai, sociologist Chan Kin-man (陳健民), 59, and retired pastor Chu Yiu-ming (朱耀明), 74.
The prosecution presented video evidence to illustrate what it said was their role in leading, planning and unlawfully inciting others to obstruct public places during the “Occupy Central” protests.
Central is Hong Kong’s business district.
The three defended the civil disobedience movement as a constitutionally protected right to push for social justice, at times citing the example of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“I was inspired very much by Dr King, and this is the same spirit we have implanted ... we strive to inspire self-sacrificing love and peacefulness, but not to incite anger and hatred,” Tai said.
Lawyers for the three argued that the actual “Occupy” movement ended up taking place in other locations, not the business district as initially planned, and it was a spontaneous movement, partly spearheaded by students and inflamed when police fired teargas.
Six others, including lawmakers Tanya Chan (陳淑莊) and Shiu Ka-chun (邵家臻), two former student leaders, Eason Chung (鍾耀華) and Tommy Cheung (張秀賢), activist Raphael Wong (黃浩銘) and veteran democrat Lee Wing-tat (李永達) also face various public nuisance charges.
“If we still don’t have the right to vote, it’s a dead end for Hong Kong,” Chan said. “I’m very sure that it’s the duty of every citizen to protect freedom and also the duty for every citizen to fight for democracy. It is the only way.”
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