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Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong, Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow imprisoned for the siege of Wan Chai Police Headquarters in 2019
One of Hong Kong’s most prominent young political activists, Joshua Wong Chi-fung, was jailed for more than 13 months on Wednesday for organizing and inciting others to join a 15-hour siege of the police headquarters at the beginning of last year’s anti-government protests. Wong’s high-profile comrade, Agnes Chow Ting, was sentenced to 10 months behind bars for her role in the same illegal protest, while her partner, Ivan Lam Long-ying, received a seven-month sentence. Magistrate Wong Sze-lai harshly criticized Wong for challenging the authority of the police force in a premeditated plot, calling him “selfish” for obstructing traffic at the mass demonstration in Wan Chai on June 21 last year. from our Global Impact newsletter on great stories originating from China. She said they had committed their crimes at a time of “large-scale social unrest and public protests,” which “makes this case more serious.” Wong, 24, received a 1 Three and a half months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of organizing an unauthorized gathering and another of inciting others to participate in the event. Prosecutors dropped a charge of knowingly participating in an unauthorized gathering. Lam, 26, had pleaded guilty to one count of incitement, while Chow, 23, had admitted the charges of incitement and participating in an unauthorized gathering. Of the trio with no criminal record, he broke down in tears in the dock when he learned that the community service order sought by his lawyers had been rejected. “Keep holding on,” Joshua Wong shouted to the public gallery full of his supporters before being The three were immediately taken away by police officers after the magistrate rejected Chow’s request for bail pending an appeal of his sentence. The magistrate argued, in effect, that Chow’s initial sentence was long enough that within a few months, it was unlikely to matter. Attorneys for the other two activists said they would study the ruling before considering further action. Criticism on Wednesday, which in turn triggered an unusual and tough response from the Justice Department, which has a long-established convention to refrain from commenting on ongoing cases. The calls for the release of the defendants, a spokesman said, demonstrated a lack of respect for the city’s judiciary, amounting to a “blatant denial of the fact that the defendants themselves pleaded guilty.” Citing previous rulings, the spokesperson added that freedom and human rights, although protected by the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, were not absolute. “It is improper and irrational for people to make radical attacks and baseless accusations against our judicial and legal system without referring to the fact and circumstances of the case. Such statements, if made with a view to exerting undue influence on our judicial and legal systems, will be useless, ”he said. The activists’ case focused on one of the most shocking scenes from the early days of the city-wide protest movement sparked by the opposition. to a now-withdrawn extradition bill, which saw a large crowd of protesters storming Wan Chai to flood the area outside the police headquarters. Protesters at the time were calling for the bill to be withdrawn, which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China Judge Wong said the number of protesters had risen from the initial 400 to more than 9,000 due to the city’s siege, while also expressing concern about the excessive force they said police had used against participants in previous protests. The protest ran from 11 a.m. on June 21 to 3:45 a.m. the next day, and the protesters threw eggs and soft drinks at the police station. The meeting also caused a police vehicle to be trapped for three hours at one point and caused a traffic obstruction that left police unable to respond to 61 emergency calls. Prosecutors had painted Wong as the leader of that night’s protest, showing videos of him telling people at the scene through a megaphone that they should get more people to come and “completely besiege the police headquarters.” “The first defendant was very selfish,” the magistrate said, referring to Joshua Wong, who said he played the most active role in giving instructions to the protesters around him. Lam and Chow also helped lead the protest at times, the court found. The magistrate said the phone messages showed that Wong had planned the event a day in advance, showing it was premeditated. He also noted that the target of the demonstration, the police station, was a “symbolic building” representing the authority of the force, and that the protest included slogans denigrating its officers. “The series of acts committed by [Wong] was to accuse the police, defying the authority of the police, “he said. After sentencing, Wong posted a message on Facebook through his lawyers, saying,” I know this is difficult. But I’ll move on. ” In addition to jail time, the ruling means the trio – former leaders of the now-defunct opposition group Demosisto, which disbanded in June when Beijing imposed its comprehensive national security law on Hong Kong – will be barred from running for election. premises for five years, unless they are able to overturn their sentences on appeal. Hong Kong law prohibits any candidate who has been imprisoned for more than three months from running for the Legislative Council or District Council elections for five years. Wong has been jailed before, even briefly in 2016 for storming the entrance to the Central Government Office in the Admiralty on September 26, 2014, two days before Occupy protests broke out that year. He was later released after winning an appeal. In 2017, he was sentenced to three months in jail after pleading guilty to contempt of court for failing to leave an Occupy protest site against a court order, but his sentence was reduced to two months for that reduction allowed him to bypass by Little was the electoral restriction, only to have his candidacy invalidated in the District Council elections last year by a government counting officer. How was also previously barred from running in a 2018 Legislative Council by-election due to Demosisto’s advocacy for self-determination, the same reason cited for Wong’s disqualification. Returning officers argued that the position amounted to upholding independence, but Chow’s override was later overturned by a court that found the election official was wrong by not allowing him to explain.Meanwhile, foreign observers and politicians rushed to criticize Wednesday’s sentence. One of the trio’s closest allies, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a former Demosisto member who moved to Britain following the passage of the national security law, called their sentences “absurd.” “It is devastating to see the sentence,” he said. He noted that Chow had also been facing an investigation under national security law, while the other two could also face further prosecution at any time. “To be honest, I have no idea when the trio could get out of prison,” he said, urging the International community to join him in calling for the activists’ release. 155 lawmakers are demanding that Carrie Lam fight for the return of Hong Kongers detained in Shenzhen, while British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urged authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing to end what he called their campaign to quell the opposition. impartial, and the rights and freedoms of the people in Hong Kong must be respected, “he said. Hong Kong’s late colonial governor Chris Patten also intervened, calling the imprisonment of activists” another grim example of China’s determination to put Hong Kong Kong in handcuffs ”. He urged foreign states to follow the lead of 155 parliamentarians from 18 countries, who on Tuesday issued an open letter to the city’s executive director calling for the return of the 12 Hong Kong fugitives detained on the mainland, and to present a Unified Front in defense of the city. Samuel Chu, a US-based activist who heads the Hong Kong Democracy Council, said he was “heartbroken and outraged” by the ruling. “Mak” There is no question that Wong, Chow and Lam are political prisoners, “he said. More from the South China Morning Post: * Hong Kong opposition activist Joshua Wong was placed in solitary confinement with the lights on at 24 hours of the day, after X-rays revealed ‘shadow’ on her stomach * Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip says the cases of Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow may determine if more national security legislation is needed * The trio of the Hong Kong opposition Joshua Wong, Ivan Lam, and Agnes Chow face jail after pleading guilty to police charges This article Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong, Ivan Lam, Agnes Chow jailed for police headquarters siege by Wan Chai in 2019 first appeared on the South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post, please download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
