Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong Jailed 13.5 Months Over Protest

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong urged supporters to “hang on” after he was sentenced to more than a year in jail for leading a protest outside police headquarters last year, prompting angry cries outside the court in one of the most high-profile cases in the government’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.

“I know it’s so difficult, but I’ll hold on,” he yelled to supporters after the sentence was read out.

On Wednesday, Wong was sentenced to 13 and a half months in West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on charges of organizing an unauthorized assembly in June 2019 and inciting others to take part. The 24-year-old leader of the city’s 2014 Occupy protests had pleaded guilty last week to the charges, which carried a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Activists Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam, who were both members of Wong’s now-disbanded political party Demosisto, also pleaded guilty over their roles in the protest. Chow, 23, was sentenced to 10 months in jail while Lam, 26, was given seven months. After the sentencing, Lam shouted: “Never regret it!”

Around 100 people outside the courtroom cried out in anger once they heard the verdict. “Add oil!” they yelled, using one of the protest movement’s slogans. “We’ll wait for you!” Rival pro-China supporters chanted that Wong, Chow and Lam deserved to be locked up “forever,” and popped bottles of sparkling wine in celebration.

“In sentencing, the court must take into account factors such as protecting the public, meting out penalties, open condemnation and deterrence,” Magistrate Wong Sze Lai wrote in her decision. “As the present case involves a breach of public order and safety, as well as a threat to the personal safety of the public, deterrent sentences are warranted to safeguard public interests and the lives and property of the people.”

The June 21, 2019, siege outside the Hong Kong Police Force’s compound in Wan Chai was among the most dramatic moments in the early days of last year’s historic protests against legislation that would’ve allowed extraditions to mainland China. Wong -- then fresh out of jail -- joined the rally to oppose the police’s decision to tear gas against protesters.

Dozens of high-profile democracy advocates, including lawmakers, lawyers and billionaire media mogul Jimmy Lai, are facing jail time as Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s government seeks to punish participants in last year’s largely leaderless protests. Police have arrested more than 10,000 people on various allegations, including 26 under new national security legislation carrying sentences as long as life in prison.

The effort to prosecute Wong -- who testified before the U.S. Congress last year and was subject of the Netflix documentary “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower” -- has drawn condemnation from Western government officials. Chow’s case has also helped solidify criticism of Beijing in Japan, where local media has dubbed her “the goddess of democracy.”

Shortly after the sentencing, Hong Kong democracy activists Nathan Law and Alex Chow, living the U.K. and U.S. respectively, published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for a global alliance to push back against China and on Washington to do more for the city’s residents as Beijing cracks down.

“We hope that the Biden administration will review and reform asylum policies for Hong Kongers and take a close look at sanctions against those who attack the city’s democratic institutions,” the wrote.“It’s another blatant attack on the HK activists, whose wishes are solely bringing democracy to Hong Kong,” Law wrote separately on Twitter.

Before the sentencing, two pro-democracy supporters chanting outside the court in support of Wong were quickly cleared from the scene by police, who said they had been standing on the court’s driveway.

“The protest movement is over,” said Alexandra Wong, a protester known as Grandma Wong who attended rallies over the course of Hong Kong’s unrest last year, outside the court. “They’re arresting all lawmakers, even young activists, teenagers, even a grandma like me. Put charges on us for nothing, trying to silence us. It’s over.”

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