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“Although we have difficult days ahead, we will not let this get us down,” Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong, 24, yells as he is taken out of the courtroom. “Absolutely no regrets,” says his colleague Ivan Lam, 26. Agnes Chow, 23, is quiet, tired and depressed. When the verdict was announced, she burst into tears.
About 100 supporters gathered in front of West Kowloon Magistrates Court on Wednesday afternoon. They are waiting for the prison bus that is supposed to transport the three of them, they cannot get any closer to their companions. Many are agitated, shout slogans, find judgments too harsh.
Judge Wong Sze-lai sentenced defendants Wong, Lam and Chow to thirteen and a half months, seven months and ten months in prison, sentences far above what was previously expected. Hong Kong’s leading criminal law expert, Eric Cheung, had had suspended sentences, in Agnes Chow’s case even community service. However, on the basis of the verdict, the judge determined that a “deterrent effect” could only be achieved through incarceration.
Masks of a resistant protest culture
It is a day of bitter symbolism for the Hong Kong democracy movement, with Wong, Lam and Chow among its most famous faces. Despite their youth, they have been involved in the dispute over what kind of city Hong Kong should be for nearly a decade, often at the forefront. In this way they became front men for a culture of protest resistance that the Chinese leadership wants to quell.
No Ride to Freedom: Prison Bus at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court
Photo: JEROME FAVRE / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
The trio met in adolescence:
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They first appeared in public in 2012 when they were young activists who campaigned against a curriculum designed to instill pro-Chinese “patriotism” in Hong Kong students.
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During the so-called umbrella movement two years later, Joshua Wong, in particular, became an internationally known spokesperson. His role in these protests has earned him and Ivan Lam prison terms in the past.
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More recently, the three friends were co-chairs of Demosisto, until they dissolved the opposition organization in June, just hours before the so-called State Security Law came into force.
The current trial of the three revolved around the incidents of June 21, 2019, when protesters besieged the Hong Kong police headquarters to protest police violence. Joshua Wong had called the protest.
“I was there that day too,” says Fernando Cheung, Wong’s mentor and until recently a Hong Kong MP. “Thousands had come, it was basically peaceful, but on the brink of the meeting, the protesters had surrounded a police car and were starting to bang on the windows. Like other local MPs, I tried to alleviate the situation, but the atmosphere had changed since 2014. “
While the umbrella movement was still aimed at leadership figures, the 2019 movement was organized in a decentralized manner through social media like Telegram and refused to be controlled by individuals, not even Joshua Wong. “We both learned that in those days last year,” says his friend Cheung.
“Immediate incarceration is the only reasonable option”
Prosecutors have now accused Wong, Lam and Chow of inciting others to attend this unauthorized gathering. With Wong the organization of the same was added, with the participation of Chow in it. All three had pleaded guilty to all charges, knowing that a confession would earn them a penalty of one third of their prison term. His defense attorneys had asked for tolerance.
Judge Wong Sze-lai did not allow that rule to prevail: the defendants did not call the protests impulsively, but “after careful consideration,” and Wong and Chow led the crowd. It could easily have led to clashes with the police, the judge said, he was just unlucky that no one was injured. “Immediate incarceration is the only reasonable option,” he said.
However oppressive the trials are, the judge has not exhausted the range of sentences. Public order disturbances in Hong Kong are classified as an unauthorized gathering as in the case of Wong, Lam and Chow, an illegal gathering or a riot.
The maximum penalties are three, five and ten years, respectively. However, in the past, violations of the smallest crimes were often not prosecuted at all, as law professor Eric Cheung notes: “Attendees of unauthorized meetings received only warnings. That happened very often during student protests. “
In previous trials against participants in the protest movement, Hong Kong’s traditionally reputable judiciary has not been shown to decide unilaterally against activists. The judges are under pressure from two sides, says attorney Albert Ho, who became known well beyond the city in 2013 as legal counsel to American whistleblower Edward Snowden. On one side are the Hong Kong and Beijing governments and the Hong Kong press, which is loyal to Beijing. On the other side is the international community: “Our judges, of course, notice: the world expects them to act fairly.”
For the three friends, such considerations do not play a role at first, they must be arrested immediately. This is particularly bitter for Agnes Chow, unlike the two men, she was sentenced to prison for the first time. He did not tolerate pre-trial detention well, his friends report that he suffers from insomnia.
Joshua Wong also had unpleasant experiences while in custody. After his arrest, he had to undergo a full-body scan, which Hong Kong law enforcement gives to criminals, to trace drug packages that have been ingested. “They say the scan showed a ‘shadow’ on his abdomen,” says his mentor Fernando Cheung. Wong was held in solitary confinement in a hospital room with the lights on 24 hours a day for several days.
It is absurd, Cheung says, that the authorities scanned Wong’s abdomen of all people. After all, the decisive part of your body is your head.
