A Hong Kong court on Wednesday sentenced an activist to three months in prison for obstruction of justice during pro-democracy…
Representational Image (Photo: Getty Images)
A Hong Kong court on Wednesday sentenced an activist to three months in prison for obstruction of justice during pro-democracy protests in 2014.
Joshua Wong, the youngest and best-known leader of the so-called “Umbrella Revolution”, would be going back to prison for failing to clear an area in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok district that had been taken over by protesters in November 2014, Efe news reported.
“They can lock up our bodies, but they can’t lock up our minds,” said Wong, moments before appearing in court.
Advertisement
The 21-year-old activist, along with 15 others, had admitted to disobeying the judicial order which asked them to lift the blockade of streets which had lasted 79 days.
Another activist, Raphael Wong, was sentenced to four and a half months in prison for the protests which opposed China’s policies in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the country.
After the sentence, both activists had sought a suspension of the sentence, hoping to file an appeal against it.
The verdict in Joshua Wong’s case came a day after the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal postponed its decision in another case against Wong and other leaders over protests.
The court extended the bail of Wong, along with two others, Nathan Law and Alex Chow, in the case and postponed its verdict on appeals filed by them against prison sentences imposed last year for their role in the widespread protests.
All three were sentenced to community service in 2016 for their role in the demonstrations and for clashing with the police in front of the Chief Executive’s office and the Parliament during the Umbrella Revolution.
A petition by the Hong Kong government, which considered the punishments “too lenient”, led to a new ruling on August 17, which sentenced the leaders to between six and eight months in prison.
The protests were one of the biggest expressions of dissent against China’s policies in the region in the last few decades.
Advertisement
