My Take | A lack of respect for laws and the courts
The decision by bodies like the Hong Kong chapter of Amnesty International to criticise the convictions of Occupy activists casts groundless doubts on the integrity of the judiciary.
For a long time, student protesters and leaders have got off scot-free in the courts. Now, suddenly, the tide seems to have turned.
Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Alex Chow Yong-kang and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, the three leading lights of the Occupy protest movement, have been convicted of inciting others to join an unlawful assembly, the first criminal convictions stemming from the mass protests that paralysed key parts of the city for 79 days.
Meanwhile, Billy Fung Jing-en, the former head of the University of Hong Kong’s student union, has been charged with criminal intimidation, disorderly conduct and/or criminal damage over his alleged role in the siege of a university governing council meeting in January presided over by its then newly appointed controversial chairman Arthur Li Kwok-cheung.
Pan-democrats have by and large kept quiet about the latest court rulings. Having banged on about the importance of Hong Kong’s independent judiciary, they can hardly claim persecution when the court hands down judgments unfavourable to some of their own.
Not so for foreign (busy)bodies like the Hong Kong chapter of Amnesty International. The group has denounced the charges against the Occupy trio as arbitrary and that their prosecution amounted to persecution, a direct threat to the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.