Joshua Wong leads young Hong Kong trio jailed for protests

Three of Hong Kong’s most high profile pro-democracy activists were jailed on Wednesday for their role in an hours-long siege of the city’s main police headquarters during the anti-government protests that roiled the former British colony last year. 

Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam, all leading members of the now disbanded political party Demosisto, were sentenced to 13.5 months, 10 months and seven months respectively over the rally outside the Wan Chai police station on June 21 2019. 

Human Rights groups have condemned the punishment as unjustified and part of a building government campaign to intimidate and silence critics and pro-democracy voices. 

The June 21 protest was one of many mass rallies last summer to demand the abolition of a draft extradition bill that could have seen suspects sent to trial in China’s opaque justice system, and to call for universal suffrage. 

It occurred just two weeks after riot officers’ had opened fire on crowds outside the city’s parliament, the Legislative Council, with tear gas and rubber bullets, leaving the public shocked and angry. 

The thousands who gathered around the police headquarters demanded the force renounce its claim that protesters were guilty of “riots.” The demonstration was peaceful and civilian workers were allowed to leave the building, although some protesters vandalised walls and smashed surveillance cameras. 

Ahead of sentencing, Mr Wong, 24, pleaded guilty to organising the assembly and inciting others to join. Ms Chow, 23, also admitted inciting people to join the demonstration as well as taking part herself, and Mr Lam, 26, pleaded guilty to the incitement charge.

Their lawyers had called for lenient sentences, urging the court to take into their youth, the fact that Ms Chow had a clear record, and that they hadn't taken part in any violence during the protest. 

However, Magistrate Wong Sze-lai ruled that as the defendants had called on people to besiege the headquarters and chanted slogans that undermined the police force that “immediate imprisonment is the only appropriate option.” 

Ms Chow, who is now facing her first jail term for her activism and who will spend her 24th birthday behind bars, wept as the sentence was announced. 

Mr Wong, who had been released from an earlier stint in prison for his activism just days before the siege, left the courtroom shouting “the coming days will be tough but we’ll hang in there!” 

He later added via his lawyers that “it’s not the end of the fight. Ahead of us is another challenging battleground. We’re now joining the battle in prison along with many brave protestors, less visible yet essential in the fight for democracy and freedom for Hong Kong.” 

Supporters who had gathered at the court in West Kowloon chanted “add oil!”, a slogan that was often used during the protest movement to encourage people to keep persevering. 

Their arrests and jail terms are the latest in a series of charges brought against pro-democracy figures that rights groups say are being used by the authorities as a warning to others against criticising the government or Beijing’s rule.

Pressure on activists has mounted since the introduction of a draconian national security law in June that can impose life sentences for vaguely-defined crimes such as “secession.”

High profile legislators and Jimmy Lai, the owner of the Apple Daily newspaper, have all recently been charged for their activism, while earlier on Wednesday, Keith Fong, the president of the Baptist University Student Union, was arrested at home and charged with possessing offensive weapons and perverting the course of justice for his own role in the protest movement. 

According to Amnesty International, more than 10,000 people have been arrested overall in connection with the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and more than 2,000 have faced prosecution on charges such as “rioting”, “illegal assembly” and “possession of weapons”.

Reacting to Wednesday’s sentencing, Yamini Mishra, Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific regional director,  accused the government of “once again using the politically motivated charge of ‘inciting others to protest’” to prosecute people who have merely spoken out and protested peacefully.”

Amnesty has called for the release of the three former Demosisto members. 

“Even in protests where isolated acts of violence took place and public property was damaged, these should not be attributed to others or the organisers, or to the assembly in general,” said Ms Mishra. 

Nathan Law, an activist colleague of Mr Wong and who is now living in exile in the UK, called the “absurdly heavy sentencing” devastating. “The independence of the judiciary system is in doubt,” he said. 

“It shows that the court once again became the suppression tool in favor to the authorities and the authority is determined to imprison prominent activists to set an example.”