Two student leaders who brought tens of thousands onto Hong Kong’s streets during pro-democracy protests in 2014 have been spared jail, with a local court saying they genuinely believed in their political ideals.
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Joshua Wong, who became the face of the protest, was sentenced to 80 hours of community service for illegal assembly.
“I still think in that circumstance, civil disobedience is the only choice to protest and to express your opinion, because we had exhausted everything in the legal framework and gained no response and made no progress”, he said.
Their arrests for the Civic Square protest in September 2014 sparked the wider Umbrella Movement rallies that erupted two days later when police fired tear gas on the growing crowds.
Many saw it as an attempt by the Communist government in Beijing to exercise greater control over Hong Kong, which is supposed to enjoy a high degree of autonomy from the mainland China – maintaining its own political, judicial, education and economic systems.
Wong and Law were given community service.
Cheung said it would be “unfair to the defendants if a deterrent sentence is imposed based on the political atmosphere”.
Their convictions last month – in the highest profile court case to emerge from the pro-democracy movement – were also slammed by rights group Amnesty International, which described it as a “chilling warning” to activists. However, Chow was later given a suspended sentence as the Magistrate said that it would allow him to take a Master’s course in Sociology at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom, as he had planned.
However, magistrate June Cheung said the three defendants – Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow – had no previous criminal records, were concerned about social issues and passionate about politics.
A third man, Alex Chow, was given a three-week jail term suspended for one year.
A third activist, 23-year-old Nathan Law, was convicted of inciting others to take part in the action which happened just before Hong Kong was gripped by nearly three months of demonstrations against Beijing’s refusal to grant democratic concessions to the territory.
The party’s first challenge comes on 4 September when Law plans to stand as a candidate in elections for Hong Kong’s legislative council.
“The taking back of the Civic Square was planned by the the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism, and we knew what was going to happen before taking action”.
Both were acquitted in June over a separate anti-China rally in the summer of 2014. He is now on bail pending an appeal. Law will run for lawmaker in upcoming elections.
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But Beijing’s refusal to grant full democracy has exacerbated recent tensions with growing calls for Hong Kong to split from China.
