Three young Hong Kong dissidents, including Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), were yesterday remanded into custody after pleading guilty to inciting a rally during last year’s pro-democracy protests, deepening the crackdown against Beijing’s critics.
Hong Kong was convulsed by seven straight months of huge and often violent democracy rallies last year in which millions took to the streets.
Beijing has refused demands for free elections, and authorities have pursued democracy supporters with criminal cases and a sweeping new National Security Law.
Photo: AFP
Wong, 24, was prosecuted alongside fellow activists Ivan Lam (林朗彥), 26, and Agnes Chow (周庭), 23, over a protest that took place last summer outside the territory’s police headquarters.
The three were members of the since-disbanded pro-democracy political party Demosisto.
“We will continue to fight for freedom — and now is not the time for us to kowtow to Beijing and surrender,” Wong told reporters on his way to court.
Once inside Wong pleaded guilty to inciting and organizing an illegal assembly. Lam pleaded guilty to incitement, while Chow admitted inciting and joining the protest.
All three were remanded into custody pending sentencing on Wednesday next week, meaning a jail term is all but guaranteed.
The maximum sentence a magistrate’s court can hand down is three years.
“Everyone hang in there. I know it’s tougher for you to remain out there,” Wong shouted inside court.
Small groups of supporters surrounded their prison van as they were driven away shouting: “Add oil (加油, phrase of encouragement),” and “No rioters, only tyranny.”
Despite his youth, Wong has already spent time in prison for leading democracy protests and told reporters that he was ready to return.
“Emotionally I am reluctant in every way to be jailed, but rationally I have absolutely no space to complain in comparison with many others,” he said outside court, in a reference to the hundreds of protest-linked prosecutions already concluded.
Chow appeared less self-
assured, writing in a Facebook post on Sunday: “If sentenced, this will be my first time in prison. While I say I have mentally prepared for this, I am still a bit scared.”
The US-based Hong Kong Democracy Council condemned the detention of the trio as a breach of the right to protest guaranteed under the Basic Law, the territory’s mini constitution.
“Make no mistake, when they pled guilty in court today, it was not a judgement on them, but rather a judgement against a poisoned Hong Kong judiciary system no longer independent or capable of rendering justice,” Samuel Chu (朱牧民), the group’s managing director, said in a statement.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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